Tourism counts among the most vivid modes of identity construction. This presentation focuses on how tourism has constructed and challenged cultural and political identity in Taiwan in comparative perspective with Ryukyu/Okinawa and Korea. I begin with a discussion of the historical role of Japanese colonial-era tourism as a mode of imperial subjectification. I then turn to examine regional tourism and identity construction in the context of the Cold War, before discussing the contemporary rise and demise of tourism from the People's Republic of China (PRC) to Taiwan.

Starting in 2008, while the PRC pointed over a thousand missiles across the Taiwan Strait, it sent millions of tourists in the same direction with the encouragement of Taiwan's politicians and businesspeople. Based on extensive ethnography, I will discuss how mass tourism, one of several strategies employed by the PRC at aiming political control over Taiwan, has worked in practice. I argue that contrary to the PRC's efforts to incorporate Taiwan as part of an undivided "One China" by strengthening cultural and economic ties, tourism actually aggravated tensions between the two polities, polarized Taiwanese society, and further consolidated a distinct Taiwanese national identity.