How do children learn about Taiwan and mainland China? Exploring the development of political understanding in childhood

Children begin learning about the social world from a very young age. Through conversations with family members, school, media, and everyday experiences, they develop ideas about the groups that exist in society and what those groups represent. While researchers have learned a great deal about how children understand visible social categories such as race and gender, much less is known about how they learn about political groups whose differences are defined more by history, identity, and symbols than by appearance.

At the Helping Kids! Lab at University College Dublin, we study how children develop an understanding of conflict-related social groups and how these early ideas shape future intergroup relations. Our research has previously examined children's understanding of divided communities in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Croatia, and Israel. We are now expanding this work to Taiwan, where questions surrounding Taiwanese and mainland Chinese identities continue to shape political and social life. Understanding which symbols children notice—and what they believe those symbols mean—provides valuable insight into how political identities develop during childhood.

Working with Dr. I-Ching Lee at National Taiwan University, we conducted 5 qualitative interviews with experts on Taiwan–mainland China relations to identify the symbols and characteristics that may be most representative of each group. We found that language, and specifically accent, was the most salient characteristic that distinguished the two groups: Although both groups speak Mandarin Chinese as their main language, they differ in the same way American English and British English do, such as word choice or pronunciation. The written language is also distinct (Traditional in Taiwan vs. Simplified Chinese in mainland China), along with the phonetic spelling system (zhuyin in Taiwan vs. pinyin in mainland China). National flags were also identified as highly recognizable symbols, as these were frequently seen during sports events, news, school materials, and national celebrations. Other notable characteristics include phone apps (LINE in Taiwan vs. Douyin/WeChat in mainland China), celebrities, sporting events/athletes, and clothing style, although experts generally agreed that children's awareness of these symbols is likely to vary with age and experience. Finally, many participants also specifically reflected on the growing cross-strait tensions in recent years, given current political leaders on both sides, emphasizing that this is a particularly timely opportunity to study how children develop knowledge about these social and political identities.
​
The information gathered will be used to develop a quantitative measure that can assess how children recognize and categorize symbols associated with Taiwan and mainland China. Ultimately, this will provide the foundation for future studies examining how children's understanding of these political identities relates to broader questions about prejudice, cooperation, helping behaviour, and peacebuilding.

-- By Vivian Liu, Postdoctoral Researcher at University College Dublin

Pictures of Taiwan taken by the author, Vivian Liu