ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the evolution of the Guomindang’s cultural policy on Taiwan from 1945–60. It focuses on two elements of that policy: first, the Nationalists’ attempts at eradicating what they called the “stain” of Japanese colonialism; and second, their efforts to promote a particular brand of “Chinese-ness” in the early Cold War. Questions over the ethnicity and national consciousness of native-born Taiwanese vexed the regime. However, the Nationalists’ postwar obsession with the de-Japanization of an ‘enslaved’ ex-colonial people gave way after 1949 to an eagerness to mobilize the island for war against the People’s Republic. Though de-Japanization continued after 1949, “Chinese-ness” on “Free China” was redefined to not only incorporate familiar themes lauded by Chinese fascists during the Nanjing Decade, but also to embrace the rhetoric of Chiang Kai-shek’s American backers.
