Sporting Taiwan: transnational athletes in the age of neoliberal imperialisms

This dissertation examines media narratives of Chien-Ming Wang, Yani Tseng, and Jeremy Lin as the entry point for interrogating the construction of transnational Taiwanese identity through modern sports. On the one hand, the (re-)articulation of Taiwanese nationalism has been reproduced and driven through the sporting success of these sporting figures. On the other hand, their national identities, their physical movements across national borders, and their sporting performances—mainly on American soil—also trouble the orthodox notion of nation and nationalism. Through examining media texts published in the United State and Taiwan, I argue that a fluid and flexible transnational Taiwanese identity has emerged. Although global capitalism and transnational corporations have been the leading forces of such media discourses, nation and nationalism still largely regulate and define the ways in which meanings are produced and consumed in these localities. More importantly, I contend that the power imbalance—politically, economically, and culturally—between America and Asia should be critically foregrounded in this conjuncture. In sum, the United States' intervention in Asia during the Cold War era and Taiwan's special status in this historical period still have a lasting effect in contemporary Taiwanese societies. The “light of Taiwan” discourses revolving around Wang, Tseng, and Lin could be understood as a continuation of U.S. cultural imperialism and hegemony since the end of the World War II. Meanwhile, transnational capital and a relatively new Taiwanese nationalism also played prominent roles in these nationalistic celebrations in contemporary Taiwan.