This dissertation investigates the multiple social forces encompassed in the production of “local (zaidi)” and “community (shequ),” the two ubiquitous terms in the lexicon of the national essence in 1990s Taiwan. Drawing on both fieldwork and historical research, it examines the collaboration among the state, the culture workers, and the mass media in constituting a localism in the face of cultural nationalism and increased global transaction. I argue that the emergence of a profound concern with locality in Taiwan is tied to its national imaginary in the global terrain. For an island caught between the desire to participate in the international community and the pressure from The People's Republic of China to censure that desire, the “local” provides a secure, apolitical ground for a distinctive, recognizable, national culture and citizenship. The wide spectrum of “local diversity” also affirms the island's new code of national sovereignty, which emphasizes progressiveness, pluralism and flexibility.
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