The culture of Taiwan is a blend of Han Taiwanese and indigenous Taiwanese cultures. Despite the overwhelming Chinese cultural influence and minority indigenous Taiwanese cultural influence, Japanese culture has significantly influenced Taiwanese culture as well.黃文儀，《士大夫與羅漢腳》，《文教台灣》第092期 The common socio-political experience in Taiwan gradually developed into a sense of Taiwanese cultural identity and a feeling of Taiwanese cultural awareness, which has been widely debated domestically.

Reflecting the continuing controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan, politics continues to play a role in the conception and development of a Taiwanese cultural identity, especially in the prior dominant frame of a Taiwanese and Chinese dualism. In recent years, the concept of Taiwanese multiculturalism has been proposed as a relatively apolitical alternative view, which has allowed for the inclusion of mainlanders and other minority groups into the continuing re-definition of Taiwanese culture as collectively held systems of meaning and customary patterns of thought and behavior shared by the people of Taiwan.

State cultural policy overview

Historical context

Taiwan's culture and cultural legacy has been largely shaped by the processes of imperialism and colonization as the structural and psychological effects of successive colonial projects have been integral to developing Taiwan's self-image and the evolution of both official and unofficial Taiwanese culture. For most of its colonized existence, Taiwan remained on the cultural margins, far from the centers of civil and cultural life of each regime, and with every regime change, Taiwan's cultural center shifted. At various times Taiwan's cultural center has been indigenous Taiwan, Amsterdam, Amoy (Xiamen), Qing-era Peking, Imperial Japan, postwar China and even, arguably, the United States.

Before the Qing Empire ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895, Taiwan's culture was characterized by Qing frontier societies of Han farmers and highland Aborigines. Due to Taiwan's strategic location along East Asian trade routes, the Taiwanese were also exposed to cosmopolitan influences and the effects of European commerce. By the middle of the Japanese era (1895–1945), Taiwan had begun to shift from local to contemporary global culture, under the guidance of Japanese style "westernization". Beginning during Japan's build-up for war, Japan invigorated its policies to Japanize Taiwan for mobilization against the Allies. Japan's effort taught Taiwan's elite Japanese culture and language but did not largely interfere in religious organizations. When Japan's suppressive wartime policies were lifted following World War II, the Taiwanese were eager to continue with their prewar cosmopolitan activities. Japan's colonial legacy has shaped many of the customs and mannerisms of the Taiwanese. Japan's colonial legacy is still visible, due to Japan's massive effort in constructing Taiwan's economic infrastructure and industrial base, which is often cited as a major factor in Taiwan's rapid economic development.

KMT era cultural policy

During the early postwar period the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) suppressed Taiwanese cultural expression and barred Taiwanese from cosmopolitan life except in the spheres of science and technology. The authoritarian KMT dominated public cultural space and Chinese nationalist networks became a part of cultural institutions, leaving little resource for cultural autonomy to grow.

Under the early KMT, Taiwan was realigned from a Japanese imperial center to a Chinese nationalist center, under the influence of KMT and American geo-political interests. Although American cultural activities were modest, they played a significant role in Taiwan's developing cultural scene. The KMT claimed a loss of morale led to "losing China" and thus the state issued a series of ideological reforms aimed to "retake" China, which became the major state cultural program of the time. The immediate preoccupation with losing China diverted long-term investment in the humanities and social sciences. On another level, the state's main objective was to "sinicize" the Taiwanese by teaching them Mandarin Chinese and Nationalist ideology through compulsory primary education.

By the late 1940s the KMT had eliminated dissent for its cultural policies. When the Taiwanese had resumed the cultural activities, which were outlawed by the Japanese in 1937, the Nationalist attitude was that the local Taiwanese had been Japanese "slaves" and would therefore have to complete a period of moral and ideological tutelage before they could enjoy their full rights as citizens of the Republic of China. The February 28 Incident destroyed Taiwan's urban elite and the arrival of the mainlander elite ensured Nationalist domination of urban cultural centers.

In 1953, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek issued his first major opinion on culture to complete Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, which included prescribing Nationalist curriculum for education, building facilities for intellectual and physical recreation and the major state cultural program of promoting anti-communist propaganda. In regard to Taiwanese cultural life, the major thrust was for "universalization" of education in Mandarin, which was enforced by law. Despite the hard-line Chinese control over culture, the Soviet advances in technology led to a new Nationalist focus on building closer cooperation with American universities and developing engineering programs. The American presence in Taiwan also encouraged Taiwanese to resume some politically, ethnically neutral cultural activities, which was expressed in a flourishing Taiwanese-language media market.

Between the 1960s and the 1980s Taiwan's culture was described by its media as the contrast between Taiwan (Free China) and China (Communist China), often drawing from the official tropes of Taiwan as a bastion of traditional Chinese culture, which had preserved "true" Chinese values against the "false" Chinese values of post Communist China. At the same time, Taiwanese cultural expressions were brutally suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT. In response to the Cultural Revolution of China, the government of Taiwan began promoting the Chinese Cultural Renaissance (中華文化復興運動), with a myriad of programs designed to promote traditional Chinese culture to counter the communist movement on the mainland which aimed at uprooting the "Four Olds". These programs involved subsidized publication of Chinese Classics, the symbolic functions of the National Palace Museum, promoting famous prewar scholars to prominent positions in government and academic institutions, textbook and curriculum design with a focus on the official view of "traditional" Chinese culture and involvement in social and community events and the exemplification of Confucian ideology intertwined with Sun Yat-sen thought.

Taiwanization

After 1975 Bentuhua or Taiwanization/Taiwanese localization has become, arguably, the most important symbol of cultural change over the past twenty years. Bentuhua describes the social and cultural movement by the people of Taiwan to identify with Taiwan's unique mixed historical and cultural legacy. Bentuhua has often been associated with Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign, Taiwan Independence, and Taiwanese nationalism.

Religion

The prevalent form of religious belief in Taiwan is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion, including Chinese ancestral worship, Mazu worship, Wang Ye worship and Zhai Jiao Traditions.TIO Gov Taiwan However, there are also large numbers of devotees to each of these belief systems.taipei times

Apart from the syncretic form of traditional Chinese folk religion, Humanistic Buddhism is the major distinguishing trait of modern Taiwanese Buddhism. Humanistic Buddhism traces its roots to Chinese monk Venerable Taixu (1890–1947), who promoted more direct contributions to society through the Buddhist community and was a significant influence for Venerable Yin Shun, who is generally considered to be the key figure who brought Humanistic Buddhism to Taiwan.

Christian churches have been active in Taiwan for many years, a majority of which are Protestant (with 2.6% of the population identifying themselves as Protestant) with Presbyterians playing a particularly significant role. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has been active in promoting human rights and the use of the spoken and written Taiwanese (see Pe̍h-ōe-jī), both during Japanese rule, as well as the martial law period of the Republic of China, during which the exclusive use of Mandarin was legally mandated. As such, the church has been associated with the Taiwan Name Rectification Campaign and the pan-green coalition.

Several Taiwanese religious organizations have extended their operations beyond the country. Several organizations, especially Buddha's Light International Association (Fo Guang Shan), Tzu Chi Foundation, Dharma Drum Mountain and Chung Tai Shan, have set up branch temples (or centers) and extended their humanitarian or missionary works around the world.

Buddhist-Taoist religious belief makes up 93%, Christian 4.5%, and others 2.5%.

Food

Pearl milk tea (also known as bubble tea or boba) is a popular tea drink available in many parts of the world. A notable Japanese influence exists due to the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Taiwanese cuisine itself is often associated with influences from mid to southern provinces of China, most notably from the province of Fujian, but influences from all of China can easily be found due to the large number of Chinese who immigrated to Taiwan during the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan. Originating in Taiwan during the 1980s, the beverage has since evolved from a local street food staple into a global cultural phenomenon. Modern adaptations, such as the introduction of brown sugar pearls, have further popularized Taiwanese tea culture internationally, expanding its footprint across global culinary markets.

Languages and Communication

Languages

History of language development in Taiwan Prior to the large-scale migration of Han Chinese from southern Fujian Province in the 1600s, most inhabitants of Taiwan spoke Indigenous Austronesian languages. With the arrival of these migrants, Hokkien and Hakka were introduced and gradually became widely spoken, especially the former. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895–1945), the colonial government promoted the use of Japanese in an effort to assimilate the local population. Following the defeat of the Nationalists by Mao Zedong’s Communist Party, Chiang Kai-shek and his government retreated to Taiwan 1949. They implemented policies that promoted Mandarin Chinese as the national language. Mandarin was strictly enforced in schools and workplaces, and children were often penalized for speaking their native tongues—whether Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, or Indigenous languages. The table below presents a timeline summarizing the major shifts in languages spoken in Taiwan throughout its history. Time PeriodMain Languages SpokenPre-1600sIndigenous Austronesian Languages (or the Formosan Languages)1600s–1800sIndigenous Austronesion + Hokkien + Hakka1895–1945Above + Japanese (colonial rule)1945–presentMandarin Chinese (official), Hokkien, Hakka, Indigenous Languages

Language varieties