Talk:Waishengren

Justification
Maybe worth justifying this page a little bit. I split this off from Mainland Chinese. That page itself has major issues, including the fact that it (used to) define "mainland Chinese" as a Chinese person living in mainland China, while the entire body of the page was about people NOT living in mainland China. This I think is a great illustration of how the term "mainlander" is overloaded, in part due to its meaning evolving (these days I think it tends to refer to citizens of the PRC). In specific contexts it is fine, but its meaning depends strongly on context. Furthermore, academic articles on Taiwan prefer the term "waishengren." It's a difficult term to explain to non-Taiwanese -- so in English language media it tends not to appear -- however, that is not a good reason to omit it from an encyclopedia. Anyway, "waishengren" is totally unambiguous and supported by RS. DrIdiot (talk) 15:32, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Definition of "Waishengren"
I believe that the definition stretches beyond merely "1945 to 1949". It would encompass anyone who came to Taiwan alongside the KMT, which would be mostly in the year 1949 but also potentially in subsequent years (1950s+). As for the definition starting from 1945, I believe that that's kind of accurate since it's when the KMT first gained control of Taiwan. However, the traditional definition seems to be exclusively limited to 1949, because that's when the KMT retreated to Taiwan and re-established the central government there. By the way, would a Chinese person who came to Taiwan in only 1940 or so (under Japanese rule) be classified as a "Waishengren"? That seems pretty unclear to me... I would think that "Benshengren" only applies to people who specifically belong to the Hoklo and Hakka ethnic groups, who have been inhabiting the island for up to 400 years. With the exception of Hoklos and Hakkas who came in the 1900s (they are kind of like a mix between Hoklo/Hakka and Waishengren). Jargo Nautilus (talk) 14:38, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Migration in World History
— Assignment last updated by A.sting30 (talk) 19:14, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Early History
I believe that the first paragraph of the history section could use some more clarification on how exactly the waishengren elites caused resentment among the Taiwanese. I want to explain what specifically occurred from government corruption and the 228 incident that caused benshengren resentment, including inflation caused by said corruption and the influx of more waishengren, along with the thousands of Taiwanese killed during the 228 uprising. Furthermore, I would also explain how this resentment caused benshengren to discriminate against waishengren in Taiwanese society, such as excluding them from their social spheres and institutions. Although this paragraph does explain how this led to the Taiwanese independence movement, I want to include the rise and changes of Taiwanese identity also caused by Waishengren migration. The researcher Melissa Brown at The University of Southern California has a good explanation on all these topics in her book Is Taiwan Chinese and I will be using this source as a citation. If anyone wants to comment on these changes, please let me know. A.sting30 (talk) 17:33, 3 May 2023 (UTC)