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Waishengren,[a] sometimes calledmainlanders, are a group of migrants who arrived inTaiwan frommainland China between theJapanese surrender at the end ofWorld War II in 1945, and theKuomintang retreat at the end of theChinese Civil War in 1949. They came from various regions of mainland China and spanned multiple social classes.
The term is often seen in contrast withbenshengren,[b] which refers toHoklo andHakka people in Taiwan who arrived prior to 1945 who had lived underJapanese rule. The term excludes other ethnic Chinese immigrants (e.g. from Malaysia or Hong Kong) and later immigrants from mainland China.
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The formal definition of awaishengren[c] was someone living in Taiwan whoseancestral home, which is passed down through one's father, was not in Taiwan. By contrast, abenshengren[d] was someone whose ancestral home was Taiwan. By this formal definition, a person born in Taiwan whose father's ancestral home is not in Taiwan is considered awaishengren.
Conversely, a person not born in Taiwan whose ancestral home is Taiwan (most notablyLien Chan) is considered abenshengren. Ancestral homes were eliminated in official records (e.g. on identity cards, household registrations, and passports) in 1996, and replaced with place of birth, which ended the official distinction ofwaishengren versusbenshengren since manywaishengren were born in Taiwan.
Today, in practice the term broadly refers to the cultural group of people who migrated from mainland China to Taiwan starting in 1945 when the Republic of China took control of Taiwan after theSurrender of Japan at the conclusion ofWorld War II, and into the 1950s during theretreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan and its aftermath. Recent immigrants to Taiwan from China are not consideredwaishengren, but make up a separate social category. Due to significant intermarriage betweenwaishengren andbenshengren families, it is difficult to precisely define the distinction in later generations.
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The termswaishengren andbenshengren pose some difficulties in translation; most academic literature uses the termswaishengren andbenshengren directly. The literal translation ofwaishengren is "extra-provincial people" while the literal translation ofbenshengren is "this-province people"; however, these translations are politically loaded since they arose in a historical context when the rulingKuomintang actively claimed the entirety of China.
One English translation ofwaishengren is "mainlander", although somewaishengren find this translation uncomfortable since many of them have lived in Taiwan their entire lives, and the term may lead to possible confusion with residents of thePeople's Republic of China. Likewise, the translation ofbenshengren as "native Taiwanese" leads to possible confusion withTaiwanese indigenous peoples.
Due to the chaotic nature of theKuomintang retreat to Taiwan, the exact number ofwaishengren is unknown. Estimates vary regarding how manywaishengren migrated, with most estimates ranging between 950,000 and 2 million,[1] with 1.2 million being the most commonly cited figure in Taiwan.[2] Newly declassified archival data yielded a population of 1,024,233 mainland Chinese immigrants in Taiwan and the Kinmen-Matsu military zones on September 16, 1956. Furthermore, the male to female ratio among the immigrants was 375:100.[3]
There are several subgroups ofwaishengren based on how they migrated. About 26% of non-militarywaishengren arrived prior to the KMT military retreat. This group consisted of elites, e.g. government officials, businessmen and intellectuals, as well as migrant workers from Fujian.[4] Another significant category consisted of military personnel and their families, as well as soldiers who werepress ganged or forcibly conscripted by theKuomintang. Another category consists of refugees, who were hastily evacuated during the Kuomintang retreat. Some others, such asMa Ying-jeou, arrived in the years after the retreat, for example throughHong Kong.[citation needed]
About 40% ofwaishengren settled in theTaipei area, with another 25% settling inKaohsiung,Keelung,Taichung andTainan.[5]
Historically,waishengren elites dominated the government hierarchy during the martial law era on Taiwan. The continued influx ofwaishengren migrants along with the corruption that occurred underChen Yi's military government immediately following the Japanese surrender in 1945 caused inflation and economic inequality between thewaishengren elites and nativebenshengren. This along with the subsequent228 Incident, which resulted in the murder of several thousand Taiwanese civilians, generated resentment amongbenshengren and resulted inbenshengren excludingwaishengren from their social spheres. This exclusion often came in the form of preventingwaishengren from using local facilities and purchasing from Taiwanese shops through acts of discrimination. This resentment also influenced the creation of a strong national Taiwanese identity,[6] which eventually led to the Taiwanese Independence Movement in the 1990s. Although no longer dominating the government,waishengren elites still make up a large fraction of bureaucrats and military officers.[citation needed]
On the other hand, many of the soldiers and refugees who arrived with the Kuomintang came without their families. Finding themselves destitute in an alien land with no relatives, some of them turned to violent crime or suicide. In the late 50s,waishengren crime rates were more than that ofbenshengren, and would not fall tobenshengren levels until the 70s. Likewise, suicide rates forwaishengren were double that ofbenshengren during the 50s.[7] Violent crimes committed bywaishengren vagrants caused fear and anger in the localbenshengren, and the government often used public executions to assuage the public, especially in extreme and publicized cases such as armed robbery, sexual harassment, or murder.[8] The influx of poorwaishengren also put enormous pressure on housing, and resulted in the illegal construction of a large number of shantytowns in Taipei. On the other hand,waishengren elites with political connections could often obtain formerly Japanese-owned properties, sometimes at the expense of evictedbenshengren who already lived there.[9]
Starting in the 1970s, Chinese nationalist dominance of the government began to recede. This was due to a lack of a political or social theory that would justify continued Chinese nationalist dominance,meritocratic policies which allowed local Taiwanese to move up in the government, political establishment encouraged under the Chiang government, and economic prosperity which allowed for social mobility for those outside of the political establishment.[citation needed]
Intermarriage and a new generation raised under the same environment has largely blurred the distinction betweenwaishengren andbenshengren.[citation needed]. Many benshengren women married waishengren, often retired military personnel who came as singles.
In the late 1990s, the concept of "the New Taiwanese" became popular both among supporters of Taiwan independence andChinese unification in order to advocate a more tolerant proposition thatwaishengren, who sided with theAllies against the reluctant Japanese colony in Taiwan duringWorld War II, are no less Taiwanese thanbenshengren. However it quickly became apparent that the notion of New Taiwanese meant different things to supporters of independence and unification. To supporters of independence, the concept of New Taiwanese implied thatwaishengren should assimilate into a Taiwanese identity which was separate from the Chinese one. By contrast, the supporters of Chinese unification seemed to believe that all Taiwanese (not justwaishengren) should restore a previously marginalized Taiwanese identity without antagonizing a larger pan-Chinese identity.[citation needed]
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