Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and Its Political Activism
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | The main objective of the present contribution consists to describe social and political activism of one particular Christian group. The main question to answer in this paper is how the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) promoted a new Taiwanese national identity and supported Taiwanese independency from the mainland China. Since the period of martial law in Taiwan (1949-1987) the PCT focused on the uniqueness of Taiwanese people and their difference from Chinese in mainland China. The church promoted a new model of national identity based on common citizenship rather than on ethnicity. Their focus was more on the common aim than ancestry. Furthermore, they often omitted Chinese heritage as an important factor of being a Taiwanese. Today, almost fifty years after the church published the first official statement declaring a different Taiwanese identity, the issue is still prevailing. At the end of 2018, the church was involved in anti-Chinese protests. In 2019, they appealed for independence of Taiwan and called the whole world to acknowledge uniqueness of Taiwanese people. |
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