Writing "Taiwanese": The Péh-oē-jī romanization and identity construction in Taiwan, 1860s-1990s

Abstract

This dissertation explores how Pe̍h-oē-jī (Jiaohui roma zi/Baihua zi, literally meaning “church romanization” or “vernacular script” in Chinese, POJ hereafter) was transformed from a “foreign” writing system as a religious tool for Bible study into an identity arker for various groups of “Taiwanese” (Taiwan ren) in Taiwan from 1865 through the 1990s. Under three political regimes― the Qing Empire, Japanese colonial rule, and the post-war Nationalist regime, POJ, originally created by the Presbyterian Church missionaries for Taiwanese peoples in the 1860s, was utilized in proselytism, school education, medical study, and as an expression of Taiwanese culture and nationalism under different social, political, and cultural circumstances. Looking into the various ways whereby POJ has become symbolically associated with different identities deepens our understanding of how it was important in the process and politics of identity making in modern Taiwan. Based on POJ materials, I aim to provide the first history of POJ literacy in Taiwan and to provide an analysis of the critical role of POJ in the formation of “Taiwanese” identities in modern China.