Looking for the image of modernization: The story of made in Taiwan (MIT)

Beginning in the 1980s, Taiwan's most vigorous global economic activity trade department faced several difficult issues in succession. Reversing this unfavorable situation by improving the MIT product image in international markets was seen as the solution to these issues. This paper analyzes the cultural contents of those economic and trade policies, and reveals how Taiwan, a marginal state forced by the wave of globalization, constructed a national identity by improving the product image of MIT. Furthermore, this process demonstrates Taiwan's desire to be a 'modern' nation among the developing countries. Based on the above, this paper argues that 'Taiwan's modern design movement' was promoted by MIT discourses through a succession of economic and trade policies. Besides declaring an aesthetic form, this movement also was one of nationalism. However, whether modern design or nationalism movement, both are transcended by the reasonable manipulation of capitalism, and become ideological bubbles.