In Global Taiwanese, Fiona Moore explores the different ways in which Taiwanese expatriates living in London and Toronto, along with globally networked professionals in Taipei, use their shared Taiwanese identities to construct and maintain global and local networks.

Based on a three-year-long ethnographic study that incorporates interviews with people from diverse backgrounds, generations and histories, Global Taiwanese explores what their different experiences tell us about migration in tolerant and hostile regimes.

Global Taiwanese considers the implications of the Taiwanese case for understanding the processes by which transnational professionals more generally use ethnic identity in their business and personal lives. As people become increasingly mobile, ethnic identity becomes more important as a means of negotiating transnational encounters; however, at the same time, the opportunities it offers are rooted in local cultural practices, requiring professionals and other migrants to develop complex social strategies that link and cross the global and local levels

With rich ethnographic detail, this book contributes to the understanding of the migrant experience and how it varies from location to location, how migration more generally changes in response to wider socioeconomic factors, and, finally, of the specific case of Taiwan and how the distinctive nature of its diaspora emerges through wider discourses of Chineseness and pan-Asian identity.

I am Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London. I am an author who writes guidebooks to SF television series, plays, audio dramas, novels and stories. I also blog occasionally. In all forms, I write about gender and ethnic identity, globalization and nationalism, networking, and how people deal with the changing working world.

Research Interests 

I am currently conducting a longitudinal multi-sited study, supported by the Nuffield Foundation and National ChengChi University, of how Taiwanese and ethnic Taiwanese professionals construct and use transnational social networks, with research sites in London, Taipei and Toronto.

The aim of this study is to examine how businesspeople of Taiwanese origin in three countries—the UK, Canada and Taiwan itself—use their ethnic identities to construct professional networks both locally and across national borders. The results of the project will promote understanding of Taiwan’s unique business culture, increase visibility for Taiwanese companies, not only in Asia but also in North America and Europe, and support communication between Taiwanese and non-Taiwanese businesses.

Source: fiona-moore.com