Diaspora, Material Life and Cultural Identity: Chinese Women Writers in Taiwan during the 1950s

A large number of mainlanders were forced to move to Taiwan with the KMT government in 1949. This group of Chinese mainlanders was mostly servicemen, government employees, and teachers; their composition differed tremendously from local Taiwanese. Such differences have been the historical and social origins of ethnic conflicts in Taiwan accordingly. It is found that although gender issues are important, it is not necessary and sufficient in the relat ions among ethnic groups in particular. Female main landers, due to their everyday life interactions with local people, had a much closer contact with local Taiwanese. The closer contact generated a higher local identity than that of their male counterparts. This paper therefore aims to exp lore the dynamic process between one’s everyday life and cultural identity. Through a series of textual analyses of the work of female main land writers, the present author attempts to inquire into the material basis of cultural identity through aspects of social life, namely food, clothing, residence, social networks, transportation and travel, education, and entertainment. This paper would also discuss the theoretical implication in a diaspora space.


Migration or Diaspora?
After the KMT govern ment moved to Taiwan in 1949, more than 400,000 Chinese mainlanders came with it. Most of the main landers who arrived at Taiwan were governmental employees, high ranking military officers and soldiers, teachers, and writers. The majority of these people obviously were grouped as the ruling class, or the cultural elites, especially the latter two groups of people. They were mostly born in the early 1900s, college graduates, and few of them even studied overseas, and had master's or Ph.D. degrees. Already closed to their late thirties, quite a few of them had already had important governmental positions prior to their co ming to Taiwan. Therefore, after these elite mainlanders came here, they continued to retain their positions or even be given higher positions in the central government, military, or schools of all levels. These "intruders," precisely due to the fact that they belonged to the ruling class, and their "wishful" nostalgic, ho me-bounding policies, had instigated much tension and conflict between the local Taiwanese and the elite mainlanders in everyday life interactions ever since they came.
As early as the 17th century, Chinese, especially fro m Guangdong and Fujian, began to move to Southeast Asian countries and Taiwan, and Chinese immigrants of South Korea came fro m Shandong. These immigrants were almost all econo mic immig rants. The main reason for moving out is that it was not easy to live in their original places of residence, so they were looking for new life possibilit ies. The relationship between these immigrants and their immigrat ion countries vary fro m country to country. Chinese immig rants to Thailand were almost completely integrated into the local co mmunity, but Chinese immigrants to Malaysia and Indonesia were very isolated fro m the local co mmun ity. Chinese immig rants to Taiwan, also so known as mainlanders, rushed the local indigenous people to the mountains and became the new owners of the island [1]. In spite of these differences, basically all the immig rants have maintained close ties with their ho metowns in Ch ina, and even o ften lived back and forth between the two places. However, these immigrants gradually settled down and became veritable "settlers." From this perspective, Chinese immigrants fro m the 17th century to the mid -20th century belonged to the traditionally so-called "international migrat ion" category, and they belonged to a different category from the concept of diaspora [2].
However, the nature of the Chinese migrating to Taiwan in the 1950s was completely different, and this migrat ion phenomenon is closer to diaspora rather than the traditional immig ration concept. The concept of diaspora originally meant that the Jews were forced to exile fro m Babylon in 586 BC. But the word used in the discussion at that time was mainly d ispersal. Unt il 70 AD, the Jews were driven out of Jerusalem by the Ro mans, and after being exiled by various countries, the word diaspora gradually became the specific mark of the Jews [3], and its meaning gradually fixed, main ly including the following important phenomena: 1. They were forced to leave their ho mes and relocate to other p laces, and often suffered fro m major psychological trauma; 2. Frequently looking back on their homes, they harbored a strong nostalgia for the ho mes that could not be forgotten; 3. They had a strong sense of loss; 4. They established close social networks with each other in different places and retained their own cultural and tradit ion; 5. Living in different yet "strange" places, the discrete must keep a certain degree of relationship with the local residents, but unity and inwardness within themselves also easily made their relations with local residents tense and hostile. [4].
Judging by the above criteria, the group of people who emigrated to Taiwan fro m China in the 1950s is obviously very different fro m the Chinese immigrants who immigrated to Southeast Asia in the past. This group of immigrants suffered the huge trauma of the Chinese Civ il War, was defeated by the Communist Party, and then retreated to Taiwan. However, they remained determined to fight against Commun ist China and return home victoriously. Therefore, they frequently looked back and established close links with each other and their lifestyle was separated from that of local residents. These phenomena are very different fro m Ch inese immigration experiences in the past, but closer to the Jewish diaspora experience. Of course, with the passage of time, the counter-attack on the mainland was obviously hopeless. The second generation of main landers has remained nostalgic because of the influence of their parents, but they have also been gradually localized, and their lifestyle gradually changed. The third-generation mainlanders and their descendants are basically localized. It is thus difficu lt to apply the term diaspora to them. But for the first and even second-generation, diaspora best captures the mood and experience of this group of Chinese.
However, the diaspora experience of mainlanders in Taiwan is unique. Generally, the d iscrete people are a minority, being marginalized. They are often excluded by the local society. However, main landers in Taiwan were not the same. Although these people were still a minority in nu mber, they built an independent and even authoritarian government politically, with huge powers and resources. In terms of education and culture, these people were even more elite, wh ich was very different fro m the general public in Taiwan in the 1950s. As Tabori points out: The 20th century Chinese history produced a huge society-in-exile, among which the regime established in Taiwan was the largest, most prosperous, and most important one. This is one of few cases in modern history where a core reg ime left the o rig inal land, surviving as an exile government, and could still establish an authoritarian government [4: 4].
In this sense, the diaspora experienced by Taiwan mainlanders is d ifferent fro m that of other ethnic groups. Facing the local society of Taiwan, this group of cultural and political elites showed a strong sense of superiority, interacting less with local people intentionally or unintentionally, establishing a denser social network with each other, and showing a strong nostalgic character identified with their original hometowns. They almost ignored the existence of the local culture, and rarely mentioned it. Even if they occasionally mentioned local culture, they often displayed negative images and even scornful attitudes. Such attitudes toward local people are rare in ordinary diaspora experience.
But the above description is not always the case. The gender of a discrete person, as well as his/her physical environment and social life, also have a considerable impact on h is/her identity. Generally speaking, because of the needs of life, wo men have more opportunities to contact the local people, and it is easier to raise their feelings for the local culture, so their identity is more diverse, not limited to their original identity. So me of them, because of living in remote areas, did not find it easy to connect with their hometown co mmunit ies, and therefore it was difficult for them to maintain their hometown lifestyle. These people were also forced to have more contact with local people and adopt the local people's lifestyle. As a result, a mo re co mplex identity is formed. The main purpose of this study is how a discrete wo man's local experience, especially her material life, such as the decoration of her home, diet, social networking, and entertain ment, etc., affects her cultural identity. I will focus on and analyze the texts of Taiwan mainland wo men writers in the 1950s to support my research.

Diaspora and Cultural Identity
The issues of separation and identification are co mplex and vary greatly over time. In terms of the dispersion of the mainland Ch inese, before the mid-1960s, they basically moved to Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries, and a few moved to North A merica, Europe, and Australia. Ho wever, after the mid-1960s, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia all saw a large moving-out population. The areas that these people moved in were mainly Europe, the United States, and Australia. Many discrete people even made the second and third moves, so the issues of separation and identification became co mplicated and diversified. At this stage, the identification of discrete people has often shifted between two or even more countries, and they showed less attachment and nostalgia for their motherland. Many people have begun to use "transnationalism" to form the cultural identity of the discrete during this period [1].
The period this study deals with falls fro m the 1950s to the 1960s. At this time, the diaspora problem is still very simp le. For the purposes of this study, the object of the study is the Chinese who emig rated to Taiwan in 1949. The reason for the removal is also consistent with the traditional diaspora theme, that is, a group of people with traumatic experience are forced to leave their places of residence and move to another place (Taiwan). Although Taiwan was a province of Ch ina at that time, because the Taiwanese experienced Japanese rule for half a century until WWII, the language, political cu lture, and even daily habits, including clothing, were very different, triggering many polit ical conflicts between the two ethnic groups, coupled with the differences in terroir, climate, and terrain. When these Chinese people came to Taiwan, they were like Jewish discrete people, separated fro m the local residents. In addition to forming their own intimate networks, they fell into in fin ite thoughts of their home country. They were looking forward to returning to the embrace of their home country one day, showing a typical diaspora complex [4].
However, the major difference between the Chinese discrete and the Jews in this study is that the Jews belong to ethnic minorities in all places of residence, and are discriminated and excluded by local residents. This is also the main reason why the diaspora co mplex is formed. However, in this study, the discrete people fro m Ch ina appear to be "foreign" rulers. In addition to establishing an authoritarian government and possessing strong political power, they were richer and more powerfu l at all levels of society and culture than the local Taiwanese. Under these circumstances, one cannot help asking, how were the Ch inese discrete in Taiwan different fro m the traditional immig rants? Apart fro m endless nostalgia and the prospect of returning home, what can we learn fro m the Chinese immigrants? This is the focus of this study.
Most studies the Chinese immigrants in Taiwan during the 1950s have a common conclusion: the Ch inese discrete not only have a strong Chinese cultural identity, but also establish a dominant culture; that is to say, even local Taiwanese undoubtedly accept Chinese identity. Moreover, in addition to having a co mpulsory element in the beginning, this identity finally became a moral and cultural form of voluntary acceptance of leadership of mainlanders [5]. At that time, the Taiwanese were not familiar with Chinese writing because they had been ruled by the Japanese for 50 years. In addition, various cultural med ia were monopolized by main land rulers. Therefore, the entire cultural field was dominated by them. This group of Chinese cultural elites incorporated China's national policy into their d iscourse and main ly emphasized counterattack and restoration of China, rescuing their fellows in China. They were not interested in what happened in Taiwan and did not even notice the existence of surrounding people. David Der-wei Wang even described the literature of this period as "post-loyalist literature," arguing that these elites acted and wrote like literat i of the former dynasties, completely immersed in their past world, and seemed to have nothing to do with what was happening in the new dynasty, so he called them "post-loyalists" [6].
However, some recent studies have shown that this kind of cultural dominance or post-loyalist views cannot describe the complicated conditions of the literature at that time, and the cultural identity of these main land writers has also been simplified. Fan M ingru's insightful analyses of the first-generation mainland wo men writers are the most important pioneering such works ever available. After analyzing extensively these women writers' early works, Fan concluded that they had already formed an ethnic identify to a greater extent after they "traveled" to Taiwan, despite the fact that they could not cut off their original, emotional ties with their native land. Different fro m traditional chronological readings of texts; i.e., one's ethnic identity is resulted fro m one's growing experiences, Fan uses Susan Friedman's theory of spatial reading to examine these writers' works [7].
Fried man's theory of spatial reading proposes that when a person travels/moves to a different place, due to cultural clashes, new values, be it mo rally or culturally, will be formed out of such strange clashes. Consequently, awakened by such a new cu ltural shock, a new local identity could emerge. Take ho me-returning as an examp le. According to Fried man, a person's new local or ethnical identity comes fro m h is/her traveling [8]. It means traveling/moving represents not only a change of space, but also a new cultural encountering. Fan analyzes texts written by the first-generation main land wo men writers to warrant Fried man's spatial reading theory. In Fan's contention, the characters in these women writers' works form a new ethnic identity after moving to Taiwan due to everyday local encounters.
Research that follo wed Fan M ingru's, such as Wang Yut ing [9], Hou Ruqi [5], and Xu Wanting [10], also began to question the cultural do minance or post-loyalist discourse. Most of these ensuing ideas use Stuart Hall's point of view in " Cultural Identity and Ethnic Diaspora." They believe the identificat ion of cultural identity is not essence, but positioning, the result of continuous playing with history, culture, and politics [11]. Under this theoretical point of view, these studies suggest that although the mainland wo men writers of the 1950s had a strong Chinese identity; however, because they were in the different political contexts of Taiwan society, they must negotiate with local people, get involved with local events, and things at any time, so they placed themselves in a suitable position, making modest adjustments to their deep Chinese identity, and some even regarded Taiwan as a new hometown. Wang Yuting, Hou Ruqi, and Xu Wanting all believe that the cultural identity of these writers was shifting "between the two hometowns." However, this phenomenon of "moving between the two hometowns" did not commonly occur among writers of that era. These studies consistently point out that because of the gender role, wo men writers have more opportunities in their daily lives to contact and negotiate with the local society, so they are more prone to have local identity. These studies all indicate that gender is a key factor in whether these discrete writers have local identity or not. But is gender a key factor in local identity? Qiu Gu ifen echoed Dav id Der-wei Wang's argument that post-war wo man writer literature rarely had cross -ethnic explorations or d ialogues, let alone local identificat ion. Most of the wo men writers' works still belonged to post-loyalist literature and were rarely related to the local society" [12]. Hou Ruqi's research also pointed out that the mig ration "between two hometowns" does not only occur in wo men, but also in some men [4]. It can be inferred fro m these studies that gender may be an important or even key factor in local identity, but it is not a necessary condition, let alone a sufficient condition. What is the most crit ical factor in local identity then? This research proposes the concept of "material life" in an attempt to respond to this issue.
The "material life" referred to here is the "conditions of existence"; that is, the material conditions that a person must rely on to maintain his/her liv ing, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, shopping and leisure, social networking, labor processes etc., and each of these specific life processes or content that each person experiences every day is the most important element forming this person' s character. The so-called "character" here is, in the word Bourd ieu, a person's "habitus." According to Bourdieu, the most basic tastes of a person, contains his/her taste for a p lace or a person, and his/her sense of justice, etc. These basic likes, dislikes or judgments are all part of one's personal habitus. Whether we like a place or not, or whether we identify with it, is determined by our deepest habitus unwittingly [13].
How is one's habitus determined? According to Bourdieu, one's class, meaning objective classifiable conditions of existence, and one' s position in a structure of conditions of existence make up one's habitus which shows a person's distinctive system of schemes. When a person thinks and acts based on a particular system of schemes, he/she will have corresponding practices that constitute his / her distinctive life style. It's very consistent from the food you eat, the place you live, the car you drive, the friends you make, and the work environment. All of these have created a consistent habitus. Bourdieu said: Systematicity is found… in all the properties with which indiv iduals and group surrounded themselves, houses, furniture, paintings, books, cars, spirits, cigarettes, perfume, clothes, games, entertainments, only because it is the synthetic unity of the habitus, the unifying, generative principle of all practices [13:173].
Why did the Chinese that moved to Taiwan in the 1950s hold a strong Chinese identity? Why was Taiwan's local existence almost ignored? Why did they even describe Taiwan with negative emotions? In fact, the most important factor is that the mainlanders were not as the same as the Jewish discrete: The former were the ruling class and the cultural elites. Therefore, after they came to Taiwan, they formed a dense social network within themselves. Such a network not only provided a space for social interactions, but also the necessary material supplies, including food, clothing, daily necessities, living settlements, historical relics, newspapers and media, etc., without any contact or communicat ion with the local society. In other words, although these mainlanders lived in Taiwan, their material life was Chinese, and they were tightly surrounded by Chinese mainlanders and objects. Therefore, most of them at the time did not understand or care about the lives of the local people. Many of them, even when traveling outside, were limited to a few of the places they were familiar with. For the living areas that really belonged to Taiwanese, such as towns, villages, alleys, temple entrances, or any middle -lo wer class places, they hardly visited, and even eyed them with disgust. Under this specific material living environ ment, their habitus and identity are understandable.
Ho wever, this provision of living conditions was not available everywhere. The best city of course was the capital Taipei, where the Chinese discrete would almost form their own world and be isolated from the outside world. Several other large cities, such as Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Tainan, were also pretty "ideal," but the physical conditions were not as good as Taipei's. As for other small local cit ies and towns, the mainlanders rarely lived. As can be expected, mainlanders living in these small regions may have to be forced to make frequent contact with the local people in order to meet the basic material liv ing conditions. In this case, the habitus and identity of these people changed. This study found that the most obvious "shifting between the two hometowns" migrant wo men writers, such as Lin Haiyin, Xu Zhongyin, Zhong Meiyin, Zhang Shuhan, Ai Wen, etc., almost all lived in s mall towns, or lived in Taipei for a short time [4] [9] [10]. Although these writers were all female, this was certainly not the case for many other wo men writers living in Taipei. A lthough gender would assist them integrate into the local society as previously stated, the more crit ical factors were their p laces of residence and the material liv ing or liv ing conditions established by their places of residence. Next , I will analyze the identity of these mainland wo men writers through the material life of their places of residence.

Research Methods
This research will focus on textual analysis, and the axis of analysis will start fro m the theme of this research, that is, how the place of residence of the discrete affects their material life arrangements, and how such arrangements shape and influence their personal cultural tastes and identities. I will d ivide the residence of the discrete people into two categories: the first category involves main land wo men writers with long-term residence in Taipei, often recalling China's ho metowns by means of memo ry; their living was also surrounded by all Chinese objects, and their social networks were also discrete literati fro m Ch ina. We need to see what is special about the cultural identity of this type of writers? The second type lived in small cities and towns. Because there were not many discrete people fro m China there, this type of writers was forced to make mo re contact and negotiations with local Taiwanese. We will examine what impact such a lifestyle has on their tastes and cultural identity? According to the inference of the above theoretical framework, the first type of wo men writers had a strong Chinese identity, ignored Taiwan's local life, and had a negative impression of Taiwan. The second type of writers, however, in addition to their maintain ing a strong Chinese identity, they also slowly developed their feelings for Taiwan, and even thought Taiwan was another hometown, so they shifted "between the two hometowns." There were actually many writers of the first type, and almost all writers of the 1950s belonged to this type. I will choose Liu Fang as the representative, mainly because her works have a lot of explanations about her life details, which can better reflect the theme of this study on "material culture," but it does not mean that she is special. In other words, she is just a typical examp le of that era. I will use Liu Fang's prose work, I and Others [14] as the main analysis object. This book is her description of her life. We can best see her various arrangements in daily life, including details of her everyday life, the choice of furniture, the decoration of the roo ms, the memories of the hometown, and the description of Taiwan's scenery during various trips. In addition to textual analysis, I will also present her social life and networks fro m other literary reviews. I hope to fully cover all aspects of her "material life." There are not many writers of the second type. Various studies all point to the following mainland wo men writers: Lin Haiyin , Xu Zhongpei, Zhong Meiyin, Zhang Shuhan, Ai Wen and several others [4] [9] [10]. Lin Haiy in was a native of Taoyuan, Taiwan, but grew up in Beijing since age 5, and settled in Taipei after returning to Taiwan since she was age 30. But because she was Taiwanese, although there were many Beijing memories in her articles, there was still a lot of Taiwan content. Xu Zhongpei was fro m Changshu, Jiangsu. After living in Taipei for one year after co ming to Taiwan at age 31, she wrote I'm in Taipei, her first book to describe Taiwan. Since then, she often traveled abroad and settled in the United States and Canada after age 39. Zhong Meiyin was born in Peip ing, moved to Nanjing at age 7, and moved to Taiwan at age 28. She settled in Suao, a small town in eastern Taiwan. She published the Memories of the Cold Spring at age 30, describing more than a year of living experience in Suao. When she was 34, she moved to Taipei for many years (including liv ing in Kaohsiung for 2 years). After age 48, she settled overseas, liv ing in such countries as Thailand, Singapore, and the US. Zhang Shuhan was born in Tongcheng, Anhui, and settled in Hsinchu when she came to Taiwan at age 20. She depicted Hsinchu in her various essays. Ai Wen was born in Suzhou and settled in Pingtung and Okayama when she came to Taiwan at age 26. Her work has a very detailed d iscussion of the lives of Taiwanese farmers and fishermen, and she was the writer deeply influenced by the bottom classes of Taiwan.
Among the second type of writers, I choose Zhong Meiyin as the analysis object. The main reason is that Zhong Meiyin settled in Suao after co ming to Taiwan for six years, then moved to Taipei for more than 10 years, and finally settled abroad. Her diverse moving experiences in Taiwan, moving back and forth among small towns, big cit ies, and even abroad, allo w us see clearly the relationship between identity and place of residence, and clarify the theme o f this study. The texts analyzed include Memories of the Cold Spring during her Suao period, several art icles fro m her other works after her relocation to Taipei and moving abroad. I will also use works of her counterparts to exp lore the details of their social interactions, so that we can have a richer understanding of her material life and condition of existence.

Textual Analysis: Liu Fang
I) Liu Fang represents the first type of mainland wo men writers. Liu was born in Jinan, Shandong, and moved to Beijing when she was 10 years old, but still t raveled between the two cities. After graduating fro m university, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, so she volunteered to join the army. After the fall o f the main land, she came to Taiwan with the government and settled in Taipei. Her debut article was "Escape from Peip ing," recalling the civil war. After that, many of her art icles contained more memo ries of Jinan and Beijing. Even her articles describing Taiwan would be mostly about her hometowns in mainland. She seemed very d issatisfied with the flowers, trees, and landscapes of Taiwan, so she often compared them with Chinese landscapes. So metimes when recalling the scenery fro m the mainland, she also lamented the unsightly Taiwan scenery. When she traveled, she often felt there was nothing worthy of seeing, and she was even reluctant to get out of the car.
Occasionally, she saw a favorite place, only because it reminded her of her ho metown. Her room decoration and furnishings were almost a reproduction of classical Chinese interior decoration. Her daily contacts were all basically literati fro m China. We can say that Liu lived in a material world co mposed of Chinese objects or imagination. Below, I will analy ze articles fro m Me and Others. In the article "Non-Family Ho me" [14: 61-64], Liu wrote that in the first few years after co ming to Taiwan, although she had a dwelling, she did not consider it her home. She would go out early every day and return home late, "go out a lock, go back a lamp." Although flowers bloomed outside the window, and indoor temperatures fluctuated, nothing mattered to her. She said, "I claim that I am a typical wanderer." She s eemed to be ready to go back to the mainland at any time. Taiwan was only a temporary place of residence, so she couldn't care less about what happened around her. Ten years later, she finally decided to "settle down," so she began to set up her room to ma ke it more like a ho me, hoping to settle down and no more wandering. She described the room in wh ich she was furnished in the article "The Old Roo m" [14: 70-72]: A small table with two drawers is placed across the window side, a bottle of ink, a tile on one side, and a small lamp with a green cover. . .. Between the back wall of the chair are t wo freehand flo wers, one is a lilac grape with light ink vines, and the other is loquats with golden leaves. ..."A genuine humble ho me," a p iece of calligraphy written in four thick b lack bowl-shaped Weibei font on the jade version rice paper, is facing the mirror. Appreciat ing it fro m the mirror, this piece of calligraphy makes me feel uplift ing. Looking at the" genuine humble roo m" [calligraphy], I murmured unconsciously: "Which one of us is not a sojourner in a dream-like life? Ho me is where the heart is." (translation mine) Ink, ink stone, and rice paper are the tools of Chinese calligraphy and also the symbols of Chinese literati. Freehand flowers are a type of Chinese painting. The Wei Bei font is a calligraphy font which can almost be equated with " China." Liu used these typical Chinese objects and symbols to decorate her room, allo wing herself to live in a material culture that symbolizes Ch ina, reminding her at any time that she was Chinese, and strengthening her identification with Ch inese culture. The most interesting thing is what she wrote at the end of the article, "Which one of us is not a sojourner in a dream-like life? Ho me is where the heart is." Liu had wandered for ten years and finally settled down through the arrangements of her house objects. And it wasn't because she had lived in a place for a long time, she became familiar with it, and finally accepted the place home; it was rather after the Chinese-symbolic objects that she had thought about day and night were placed in her place o f residence. She felt relieved and began to feel the place was home.
In addition to setting up her own home life, Liu also befriended other writers, especially authoresses. It must be emphasized here that in the 1950s, most Taiwanese literati were unable to write in Chinese because of Japanese education. Therefore, most writers at that time should be fro m mainland Ch ina. When Liu served as the editor-in-ch ief o f " Literature World" in 1952 for six issues, she contacted many mainland writers. After she stepped down, she served as the host of "Art Window" of Education Radio [14:13]. After the establishment of the "Taiwan Provincial Wo men's Writing Association" in 1956, Liu actively part icipated in the "Women Writers' Birthday Party" curated by Lin Haiyin and they met at Lin's house once a month. In addition to these informal gatherings, at the time, the "Taiwan Provincial Wo men Writers' Writing Association" often went to the Kin men frontline under the planning and subsidies of the government, or visited public construction sites to help promote national policies [9: 49-91]. These activities allo wed Liu to establish a dense social network with other mainland writers, which was also very helpful for strengthening her Chinese cultural identity.
Fro m the above material and social life, one can tell that Liu almost always lived in the Chinese habitus, naturally shaping her strong Chinese cultural identity. What's more, apart fro m the above specific living arrangements, Liu always remembered several ho metowns of Ch ina through writing so that she was surrounded by Chinese things and memories more closely. A mong these memo ries, we most often see her nostalgia for Beijing. In "Nine Recollections of the Old Cap ital" [14: 73-88], she recalled nine scenic spots in Beijing. In her memory of "Tao Ranting," she wrote: "I am not a native of o ld capital, but I have lived there for a long time, so every corner of the capital has an old dream that I deeply remember." The so-called "every corner" here is by no means an exaggeration. She not only missed and appreciated some famous natural landscapes or cultural land marks in Beijing, she even felt places that ordinary people were unfamiliar with beautiful. Shichahai was exact ly such a scenic spot. She wrote: Beijing's Beihai, Zhonghai and Nanhai areas are in the core of Beijing where past dynasties were located, and today they are also the administrative centers. The lower reaches of these three seas have flowed out of Beijing, and are located in remote areas on the outskirts of the city. The scenery is not outstanding, so tourists are scarce. There is a market here only in summer. The singers are here, the co mic talkers are here, the circus is coming, and so are the western films. In the summer, Shichahai becomes Beijing's second "overpass." Therefore, many literati have said that Shichahai had no place in the most elegant hall. Ho wever, Liu liked this town very much. She said, "Anyway, as long as I prefer a place, I would always find words to defend it. Regarding the Sh ichahai, no matter how those literati despise it, I would always insist it is like "a pretty girl of a humb le o rig in" that has her own elegant style too." [14:82].

(translation mine)
Liu not only missed and praised Beijing scenery very much, but also co mpared it with Taiwan's scenic spots and laughed at Taiwan. For instance, after recalling the different scenery of Spring, Su mmer, Autumn, and Winter in Qionghua Island, and its rich changes, she wrote in the conclusion: "Here (referring to Taiwan), has only the bitter and disturbing mosquitos. I hereby proclaim, Formosa is worse than Qionghua Island " [14:78]. In the "Hutong" section, Liu described how the Beijingers in hutong were relaxed and calm, and she did not forget to scold how noisy Taiwan was, citing many examples: The continuous autumn rain made mud all over the ground, which was a bit annoying, but the people passing by held up an u mbrella and lowered their heads to check the footprints of the predecessors. . . For a long time, the ancient city has been growing quietly. People here know how to enjoy quietness. Hutong is the home of a quiet home… in the clamorous world of Japanese wooden clogs (referring to Taiwan), I desperately wanted quietness. I, I couldn't help but miss the "hutong" [14:88].

(translation mine)
Besides her nostalgia for the Beijing, old capital, Liu is also full of nostalgia for her hometown, Jinan. In "Willows" [14: 45-47], she lamented that Taiwan had "four seasons like spring" throughout the year, and lacked seasonal changes. What it had all year round were some out-of-shape trees, such as the beard-like air-roots of banyan trees, the dull hollies, the awkward palms and coconut trees. One rarely sees the light cute trees such as willows. Therefore, she missed Jinan, a city surrounded by "four sides of lotus flowers, three sides of willows, and [it is] a city with mountains and half city lakes." Especially when spring comes, in front of "all families there are streams; every household has weeping poplars." She wrote in the conclusion: Nowadays, my youth has gone prematurely. Life on the island is like stagnant water. Although I know pines and cypresses do not wither, and are evergreen, at the end of the year, they only retain the same old green color, and [they don't] even have the overflowing feeling of spring [14:47]. (translation mine) Liu also totally denied Taiwan's flowering plants. Once, when she went to southern Taiwan to see phoenix trees, she was greatly fascinated by the green of the leaves and the red of the flowers, thinking that the red of the flowers of the phoenix trees was a true red, not crimson, not purple, not pink, and the green of the phoenix t rees was also a true green." Moreover, she observed closely the arrangement of leaves and flowers in t wo colors, and she concluded that "there seemed to be no gaps between the leaves and flowers, and all one saw were only red and green." While being fascinated by the colors of those trees, Liu suddenly felt "the t wo colors were very familiar. It turned out that they reminded me of a village girl's red short coat and green pants in my hometown" [14:35].
Liu rarely traveled in Taiwan. If she did, she visited with scholars arranged by the state. The main purpose was to write reports, pro moting the infrastructure projects of the government, and strengthening people's determination to counterattack China. The trip depicted here was also carried out in this context. She first took the train out of Taipei and saw a green field outside the car, which attracted her, but she immediately said, "I'm not intoxicated by the infinite spring colors which would only remind me o f the scenery outside the car window wh ile in China." Apart fro m the scenery that made her remember mainland scenery, Liu's entire journey was very unpleasant. The main reason was that she didn't think Taiwan was beautiful. Co mpared with the mountains and rivers of the main land, Taiwan's mountains and rivers were too plain. Fo r examp le, she wrote about the Baihe Reservoir in Tainan: "The mountains are low, and the rivers are without charm. If you only travel among mountains and rivers, the long-winding journey is not worthwhile" [14:98].
Because she thought the mountains in Taiwan were ordinary, she hardly got off during the whole journey. In Dabei Lake in Kaohsiung, she only stayed in the car and thought that since all the flowers, trees, water, and bridges had been seen, it made no sense for her to get out of the car and bask in the sun. When she arrived at Kenting National Park, she did not get off either. When she arrived at Taitung Sizhongxi Hot Sp ring, she got off the bus but did not enter the hot spring. She felt that Taroko was quite majestic, but what moved her more was the veterans who built the Hengguan Highway: they came fro m China. When she finally arrived at Yang mingshan, she claimed that after she had seen the "big world, "mean ing China, Yangmingshan was merely a tiny flower. [14:99] II) The following is an analysis of the second type of mainland wo men writers, represented by Zhong Meiyin: Zhong came to Taiwan with her husband in 1948, landed in Keelung, and lived there for a year, then settled in the eastern town of Suao for six years. Suao was a s mall town located in a remote area in the east, with few mainlanders. Therefore, Zhong Meiyin's village life was very simple. Beside her daily housework, she raised chickens, ducks, grew vegetables, occasionally went to nearby markets, grocery stores, and interacted with local teachers or parents at her children's schools. She liked nature very much. Therefore, besides attending daily trivial matters, she spent more time observing nature, appreciating local natural environment. As a result, she had developed local identification with Taiwan. Belo w, I try to analyze texts fro m one of her books, Memories of the Cold Spring [15], published while she was living in Suao. Co ld Spring is a well-known scenic spot in Suao. Zhong used Cold Spring as the book's title to exp ress her love for Suao. In the book, she described a lot of her daily life during this period. I will examine her material life and liv ing condition, and then analyze why she had gradually developed local identification with Taiwan.
In the art icle "My Life," Zhong wrote that she loved cleanliness, but she did not want to clean up all the rooms like a furniture co mpany did-too clean to have a trace of humans. Therefore, her roo ms were always simple, casual, and even a little messy. She described her home like this: The bedroom walls, in addit ion to hanging magnified artistic family photos of playing on the beach in summer, do not have a problem to hang two clothes at a considerable distance. Although the bedding on all the beds must be square, beside the pillows, there may spread an unfinished novel or magazine. The bottle flowers on the small coffee In this article, we can see that the objects around Zhong' s daily life were very different fro m those of Liu Fang. Here, there were no objects such as writing brushes, lotus roots, rice paper, p ieces of calligraphy, and Ch inese paintings that symbolized China. They were rep laced by objects containing local elements of Suao or Taiwan, such as family portraits of playing on the seashore, children's toys, and some local p lants. These objects had nothing to do with Ch ina, and neither was there a hint of her hometown in Ch ina. Therefore, these objects allowed her to live in real life, rather than go back in time. In addition to the room decoration, her daily housework also makes us more clearly see her material life and condition of existence. Take two o f her art icles --"The Story of a Chicken" and "The Egg Story" --as examples.
The "Chicken Story" was Zhong's first article after she came to Taiwan, describ ing that she bought a skinny hen fro m the market in preparations for the Dragon Boat Festival. However, after the hen entered the door, the big rooster next door was attracted by it and came to see it every day. The two chickens seemed to be in love. Zhong described the love between the two chickens in an anthropomorphic manner with the keenness of a writer. Because of the feelings for the chicken, she could not bear to kill the hen. As a result, there was not a chicken dish for Dragon Boat Festival dinner. However, there was a touching scene that shows the hen seemed to become part of the family : One day, the hen flew to the window and stretched her throat to sing. Zhong recalled what her mother had told her, and she knew that the hen was about to lay eggs, so she laid the chicken cage with straw and drove the hen into the cage. The cock followed. Zhong hurriedly called for her husband to come to take a look. She described the scene at the time: The little hen lies silently on the grass, and the big rooster stand beside her silently with his chest raised, looking like a male guard ian. So met imes he crouches down to catch worms and feed them to the hen, and sometimes he walks around slowly, and seems to be the husband who is guarding his wife. "He is awaiting his child to be born. How responsible is he! How many among us can keep up with him!" I sighed and said, and my husband made a knowing smile to me [15: 29-30].
(translation mine) Fro m buying chickens and preparing dishes, taking chickens as part of the family and not being able to kill them, to the husband and wife watching the hens lay eggs, one can see Zhong had a high degree of interaction and connection with the surroundings. Zhong was living in the real world and interested in everything around her. Unlike most other mainland writers who came to Taiwan held a negative attitude toward Taiwan, Zhong often praised the scenery and objects around her. For example, she said that it was difficu lt to eat cauliflower on the mainland, but in Taiwan, it was everywhere. The peas in the main land had to be shelled, but the peas here could be eaten with skin and were sweeter. The short, fat loofah was easy to peel, the bitter gourd white and tender, and the natto soup even more delicious. The huge winter melon also amazed her [15: 100-101]. Indeed, fro m her sundry articles, one can tell that she truly enjoyed living in the present life.
Zhong' s view of Taiwan also differed fro m many of her counterparts. Liu Fang, analy zed above, said that Taiwan's "mountains are low; rivers are flat." The flowers and trees were very ordinary, and not as beautiful as those in mainland Ch ina. Ho wever, Zhong was impressed by Taiwan's diverse and rich geographical landscapes. She stated that the "Eight Scenic Areas of Keelung" were fascinating and she wondered how people would dislike Taiwan [15: 100]? The spectacular waves on the east coast were better than Qiantang River's [15:42], and the majestic and magnificent Suhua Highway was even better than the Wujiang River: This small island was so compact as a small sparrow with all its internal organs. I used to know that Taiwan not only had the magnificent scenery of the sea country, and also the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. No w I discover that Taiwan  The above events show that Zhong's lifestyle has changed dramatically since she moved to Taipei. While in Suao, she was accompanied by chickens, ducks, vegetable, open-air market and grocery store clerks. In the surroundings of these people and objects, she carefully observed the details of them. Fro m her personal delicate experiences, she lived a fun, meaningful local life, and gradually cultivated her feelings and identification with Taiwan. After mov ing to Taipei in 1955, things around her life were very different. She participated in various writers' associations, and the members of these associations were almost all fro m Ch ina. At this time, her attention to the local life here was greatly reduced, which was also reflected in her art icles of this period. A few of her observations of Taiwan's locality had also begun to appear negatively. About nine years after she moved to Taipei in 1964, she published two collections of essays --A Journey to the Forts [17] and The Little Spring in October [18], wh ich best represented her state of mind during this period.
A Journey to the Forts contains articles written nine years after she moved fro m Suao to Taipei. These articles differed greatly fro m her articles in Suao period. They were full of nostalgia for China and anti-co mmun ist sentiments because of her visit ing the battlefields. They strengthened her identification with Chinese culture and reinforced her love for her motherland. On the contrary, her description of Taiwan's local life was much less, and her impression of Taiwan was mixed with many negative impressions. Like Liu Fang, she began to compare Taiwan with her Ch inese hometown. Two articles, "Spring of Banqiao" [17: 251-255] and "At Age 40" [17: 25-29] are analyzed to show her psychological change.
In 1963, Zhong visited the recently co mpleted catholic church in Banqiao and nearby places, including the Lin Family Garden and the National Academy of Arts, so she wrote "The Spring of Banqiao." The catholic church in Banqiao was hailed as the largest and most beautiful catholic church in Taiwan at that time. Although Zhong praised it, she thought it was not big enough and too new. She believed whether it was a temple, church, or local place of interest, the longer the history, the better, and the older the better too. Therefore, she said that the Banqiao Catholic Church is not as good as the Sheshan Church in the suburbs of Shanghai. After visiting the Banqiao church, Zhong went on to visit the Lin Family Garden in Banqiao and the nearby National Academy of Arts. According to her, the fact that the buildings of the National Academy of Fine Arts were lined in a horseshoe shape with a sports field in the middle showed how plain the school was. With only few flowers and plants, the campus was as barren as a desert. She thought of Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts located in the West Lake. Co mpared to the West Lake, the Lin Family Garden was more like a bonsai. It was so small that it wouldn't even accommodate an art school. Due to its vastness, however, the West Lake could acco mmodate d ifferent styles of East and West. She concluded in this article: The spring of Banqiao is lonely, with no trace of spring. When Zhong lived in Suao, she was surrounded by local people and things, so she was fully integrated into the local life wh ich made her intoxicated and happy, admiring the greatness and beauty of Taiwan. However, after moving to Taipei, there were too many "home towners" living in this big c ity. Her liv ing conditions and material life had changed drastically. Every day she was in contact with China-related affairs or people. Her identity with China grew deeper, and so did her nostalgia for her hometown. But her feelings and identification with Taiwan were getting weaker, and many were even negative. This "Banqiao Spring" was a work about eight years after she moved to Taipei. Co mpared with Zhong in the Memories of the Cold Spring period, she turned into two different people. She compared every aspect of Taiwan with that in the main land, and thought the latter was much more superior. She thought that spring was no longer in Taiwan, but in the land of her hometown. Similarly, in the article "At Age 40," she once again described Taiwan as a "small bonsai" comparing her childhood memo ries of China, and even claimed that she had homesickness: We have been squatting for too long in this s mall bonsai-like Taiwan. Every day I see these people, and hear these things. All the tourist attractions have been visited, all the local products have been tasted. And the movies are the same. I always feel too cramped and too boring. I actually suffer fro m nostalgia--I have never returned to the so-called hometown [17: 25─26]. (translation mine) The Little Spring in October is also a collection of articles published after she moved to Taipei But fro m June 1964, Zhong began a series of overseas travel. Perhaps because she was overseas, her views and feelings about Taiwan had changed again. At this t ime, Taiwan seemed to become the motherland in her mind. As she looked back at Taiwan, despite more crit ical, the emotion she showed was an anxiety and expectation of deep love, rather than a contemptuous attitude. At this time, her concerns fell entirely on Taiwan; Ch ina did not seem to be in her thinking and observation.
Zhong published Sea and Sky Trails 80 days after traveling around the world [19]. Th is is not a pure landscape-style travel journal, but a deep reflection of Taiwan through foreign countries. She believed the biggest problem in Taiwan was that it only sought to live by, hoped that everything would be fine after counterattacking Ch ina, and even used war as an excuse, thus creating a society full of perfunctory thinking and hoping for a fluke. Therefore, she pointed out in her preface painfully: "Time is the most ruthless. Instead of singing 'Counter-attack on the Continent,' why don't we first learn fro m the example of a first-rate country step by step today [19: 4-5]?" In that era full of the voice of "counter-attack on the mainland," Zhong's words were very unique, sharp, and focused. It was the so -called "feeling resentful when someone fails to meet one's expectation," and also showed her love and concern for Taiwan.
Zhong was impacted by foreign cultures due to her travels around the world. She repeatedly reviewed the shortcomings and deficiencies of Taiwan, and she rarely praised Taiwan in public. But as Xu Wanting [10: 130] points out: "In her severe condemnation, sarcastic criticis m, and bitter persuasion, she is full of expectations for Taiwan society. Her crit icis m does not come fro m the comparative psychology of 'foreign culture adulat ion,' or 'the grass is always greener on the other side.'" However, the experience of a rainy night in Hong Kong triggered Zhong' s "Taiwan is good" emotional identity, and she even called Taiwan as "the motherland." She recalled: The rain was getting heavy. I saw it through the window at 2 p m that the ferry crossing stopped. No bus would run at 8 p m, but in fact, the wind and rain are not so big. I cannot help but take p ride in Taiwan In 1969, Zhong moved to Bangko k because of her husband's job. Her husband went to Bangkok 2 years earlier, and during his absence, because of her daughter's schooling, Zhong lived alone on the top floor of an apartment in Taipei. The family was divided into three places. The mood of being separated from her family made her particu larly sensitive to the wind on the attic. Therefore, she called the Taipei place the Windy Attic. Whenever she listened to the wind and the rain, and couldn't fall asleep at night, she got up to read and write. After moving to Bangkok, although the home environment was splendid, she still missed the days of the Windy Attic, and her love for Taiwan was even deepened. Therefore, she compiled the articles written during that period into a book, Memos in the Windy Attic [20], and wrote a preface to it at her new residence in Bangkok: "The scenery is so beautiful outside the window. girl, are all given to me " [21:46]! This is what she called "paradise years." During this time, in addition to participating in church choirs, she also participated in the "Chinese Choir" composed of the overseas Chinese. She liked the church choir very much, but seemed to prefer Chinese songs more: Xiao Tairan's "There is No Salvation in the World," Lu Quansheng's "Please Drink Up." Lin Shengying's "Lift You r Hijab" and " "A River of Red, " Huang Youli's "Under the Silver Moonlight," all made her very much into xicated. But Lu Quansheng' s ensemble "Happy Meeting" made her fall into the memories of the past and felt the deepest. This song was adapted from a Taiwanese aboriginal folk song. Its long-sounding tones evoked her strong nostalgia. Such nostalgia was not for her hometown in main land but Taiwan, where she had lived for more than 20 years. The fo llo wing quotation is a bit long, but it represents her mood in a foreign land in her later years, and her feelings and identification with Taiwan: There are many phrases in this song that are full of local flavor wh ich I seem to be familiar with. Twenty years in Taiwan, I think that these phrases have already entered the subconscious unintentionally. They may have come fro m Sun Moon Lake's Pestle Song, or even rural Taiwanese opera. I wasn't prepared to remember them at the time, but they were buried deep in my heart. Therefore, when these songs suddenly appeared in our happy gatherings, how much of related past was evoked, and the sad and happy years that will never return, and my dear children. Yes, my children are all by my side, but they are not "them at that time" anymo re. Suddenly, a deep nostalgia hurts my heart like liquor. Now I realize that even if I t ravel to the corners of the world, my heart is still in Taiwan, but I didn't realize it until the song came to wake me up [21: 52-53]. (translation mine) The above is a textual analysis of Zhong's articles after she came to Taiwan with a diaspora of the mainland Chinese. Basically, we can div ide this analysis into three stages: 1. Suao period: Suao is located in a remote corner of the east. Zhong was associated with local th ings, including natural landscapes and livestock. This complete localized living conditions and material life allowed her to cultivate her feelings and identity for the region. Therefore, her art icles during this period are full o f praise and appreciation of local things in Taiwan. 2. Taipei period: A large part of the main land elites came to Taiwan lived in this big city. These people not only possessed a high degree of cultural and political capital, but also formed a co mplete economic and survival habitus. In addition to a comp lete social network, they also lived a complete China-related material life. Such living conditions bred a strong Chinese identity which also substantially reduced their understanding and respect for Taiwan. 3. Period of living abroad: When liv ing in a different place, Zhong was also stimulated by different cultures, yet her feelings for Taiwan seemed to have deepened. At this stage, Taiwan became the object of her homesickness, and her feelings towards China seemed to fade away. Her wanderings in the past between the two hometowns were officially settled at this time. Therefore, despite her "heaven years" in Los Angeles started in 1977, she returned to Taiwan in 1982 and died in Taiwan.

Concluding Remarks
Many Chinese who migrated to Taiwan in the 1950s were not ordinary immigrants but a diaspora of Ch inese elites. After they moved to Taiwan, they established their own living networks and rarely interacted with local Taiwanese. They had strong nostalgia and identity for the motherland. Moreover, they were not ready to take root and always wanted to return to their homeland. At this level, the Chinese diaspora in Taiwan is similar to the Jewish diaspora. However, one thing that is very different is that the Chinese discrete formed a ruling class and created the dominant culture. Not only could they maintain their original cu ltural identity, even the local Taiwanese voluntarily obeyed and accepted Chinese culture. These mainland elites almost paid no attention to local life, and they also harbored negative views on local things and people. This is the difference between the Chinese diaspora in Taiwan and other diasporas. Liu Fang's case is typical of the Chinese diaspora.
Although the dominant culture represented the political culture of that era to a certain extent, some recent studies [4], [9], [10] show that although the Chinese diaspora of that era used Chinese culture as their main identity, some of them already had quite a contact with local culture, and they began to consider Taiwan as their new hometown. These studies point out that these people are migrating "between two hometowns." Zhong Meiyin analyzed in this paper is representative of this type. Fan Mingru [7] even believes that these Chinese have taken Taiwan as their new hometown and established local cu ltural identity. These recent studies have raised the question: why under the Chinese dominant culture, some literati at that time could still establish local identity? The co mmon answer to these studies is "gender." Simply put, due to the needs of female ro le-p laying such as motherhood and being a wife, they have more frequent contact with local people an d objects; therefore, they gradually cult ivate their emotions and identity with Taiwan local things and people.
Although this study points out that gender is an important factor in local identity, it is not a necessary and adequate condition. The key factor for the mainland Chinese to cultivate their local identity, however, is their places of residence. Taipei was the largest city and capital. It gathered a large nu mber of the mainlanders, so it fully formed an autonomous internal market, provided the necessary resources for social, economic, cultural, and political exchanges, and established a co mplete social network. Therefore, the Ch inese living in Taipei were almost surrounded by people and objects related to China every day, forming a China-centered survival situation, or what Bourdieu calls "habitus." These material conditions were the key factors that shaped their Ch inese identity. Simp ly put, culture is made of the material. However, other small cit ies did not have this material condition. The mainlanders liv ing in these small towns were thus forced to contact and negotiate with local people, and their identity changed in the process.
In order to prove this hypothesis, this study takes Zhong Meiyin as the object, and analyzes in detail the different texts produced at different places of residence after she came to Taiwan. Th is study found that during the six years she lived in the small town of Suao, although she still had a strong identificat ion with Ch ina, she had a high degree of affection for Taiwan's local life and had many positive evaluations of local people and things in Taiwan. However, when she moved to Taipei, she began to be trapped in Taipei's Ch inese habitus, her Ch inese consciousness came back, and her attention to Taiwan decreased significantly. She also liked to compare Ch ina with Taiwan, and she had a lot of negative co mments on local people and matters. However, during her later period of living abroad, she missed Taiwan greatly perhaps because of being in a foreign country and being s hocked by a different cu lture. Although she still crit icized Taiwan a lot, it was not the same disdain mentality but rather out of her high expectations for Taiwan. During this period, she almost didn't mention China any more, and she always missed Taiwan, thin king of Taiwan as her motherland, and her only hometown. This is very d ifferent fro m the previous attitude of shifting "between the two hometowns." Hall [11] points out that cultural identity is not a substantive issue; it is not eternally fixed in a certain essential past, but a continuous game between history, politics and power, a process of constant change. This study more specifically states that a key element of this change is the "place of residence." Different residences have different compositions, so they can also have a huge impact on the cultural identity of d iscrete people. As Giloy [22] points out in his article "Not where you come fro m, but where you are," the notion of "Where you are" has gradually rep laced "Where do you come fro m," and has become a physical and mental assurance for immigrants. Zhong's ultimate identification was accomplished in a foreign land. Why "foreign land" becomes a catalyst for cultural identity is another issue worth explo ring. Through the textual analysis of Zhong's works, this research allows us to see the material basis of cultural identity and the key role that "place of residence" plays in this changing process.