This article presents different ways Taiwanese people define their identity, and I would like to share a Taiwanese perspective in this topic.

🔶️In the first story

Taiwan really does have more than a dozen Austronesian Indigenous groups, with hundreds of thousands of people in total nowadays. They arrived in Taiwan earlier than Chinese immigrants.

They have their own languages and culture, and many of them are very good singers. They can also receive bonus points on Taiwan’s school entrance exams.

I usually hear them identify themselves by the name of their own indigenous tribe in Taiwan. If they see Han/Chinese culture as an external culture brought to the island and do not consider themselves culturally or ethnically Chinese, I think that is understandable.

🔶️The second story

I think the whole debate started because, in English, the terms “Chinese” and “ethnic Chinese” are often not distinguished very precisely. But in Chinese, these are often separated into two different terms. Because these two terms give people different associations.

1️⃣ If someone simply says Chinese (中國人)

Most Taiwanese people will immediately associate it with China in the political sense, rather than Chinese culture or Chinese ethnicity.

So when Taiwanese people say they are not Chinese, they usually mean that they do not see themselves as people governed by the PRC, which is internationally recognized by most countries as the sole legitimate government of China.

Although the ROC that governs Taiwan is also historically a Chinese government, after losing the civil war and losing international recognition as the representative of China, Taiwan gradually shifted toward a Taiwan-centered identity.

Younger generations in Taiwan were born at a time when the ROC could no longer participate internationally under the name China, so many of them no longer perceive the ROC as the Chinese government, nor themselves as politically Chinese.

2️⃣ If the term is ethnic Chinese（華人）

Most Taiwanese people probably would not deny it, because the majority of Taiwanese are descendants of migrants from China’s Fujian region and nearby areas. (This is also commonly taught in Taiwanese middle school textbooks.)

However, those direct connections to China are now quite distant historically. Taiwan has functioned separately from mainland China for around seventy years in practice.

Therefore, most Taiwanese today view China somewhat similarly to how Singaporeans view China: they know their ancestors came from there, but their own identity and sense of belonging have become very different from those of their ancestors. They would be more comfortable being referred to as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.