Taiwan in 2008: My kingdom for a horse

Asian Survey

Volumn 49, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 88-97

  Gold, Thomas B ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b Inter University Program for Chinese Language Studies   (China)

Author keywords

Chen Shui bian; DPP; KMT; Ma Ying jeou; Taiwan

Indexed keywords

ELECTION; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL CHANGE;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; TAIWAN;

EQUIDAE;

EID: 84869251751     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: 1533838X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2009.49.1.88     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. I observed both the Legislative Yuan and presidential elections in 2008.
2. The classic explanation of this is in Shelley Rigger, Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (New York: Routledge, 1999).
3. Because blue is the dominant color of the KMT flag and green the dominant color of the DPP flag, their respective party alliances are referred to as the Blue and Green Camps. The pro-Blue Non Partisan Solidarity Union won two district and one aborigine seat, and the People First Party won one aborigine seat; one seat went to an independent.
4. For details, see John F. Copper, Taiwan's 2008 Presidential and Vice Presidential Election: Maturing Democracy, Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, School of Law, University of Maryland, no. 1-2008 (192).
5. Shelley Rigger, "Strawberry Jam: National Identity, Cross-Strait Relations, and Taiwan's Youth," paper presented at the 2008 Conference on Taiwan Studies, University of South Carolina, October 3-5, 2008, cited with permission. Rigger fi nds that this generation (denigrated as "strawberries" because they are attractive on the outside but easily damaged) is alienated from Taiwan's current political scene. Nonetheless, university students calling themselves "The Wild Strawberry Student Movement" demonstrated in November to protest heavy handed police tactics during the visit of Chen Yunlin from Beijing, discussed below.
6. I.e., a Taiwan citizen who personally, or whose family, migrated from mainland China in recent decades to escape Communist rule there.
7. See .
8. Taipei Times, January 13, 2008, p. 3.
9. See , from November 11 newspapers.
10. Jerome Cohen, "Rebuilding Trust: Calls Are Growing for the Mainland and Taiwan to Establish Independent Investigative Commissions," South China Morning Post, , November 27, 2008.
11. "Accelerating Downhill," Economist, January 17, 2009, p. 13.
12. Global Views Survey Research Center, news release, no. 268, October 2008.
13. Bonnie Glaser and Brad Glosserman, Promoting Confidence Building Measures across the Taiwan Strait, Pacific Forum and Center for Strategic and International Studies, September 2008.
14. Liu Wanyuan, "US Arms Sale to Taiwan: Old Tune of Strategic Balance," News China 4 (November 5, 2008), pp. 26-28.