The Great Exodus from China: Memory and Identity in Taiwan

Realms of Memory

With the Communist victory in China in 1949 nearly one million civil war refugees flooded into Taiwan—the largest out migration from China in the modern era. Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, author of The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan, helps us understand the relationship between trauma and memory in new ways. He reveals how the memories of mainlander refugees changed over time and the therapeutic role they served. He sheds light on how mainlander refugees and their descendants used their memory work to lay claim to a new home in Taiwan. Perhaps most importantly, Dominic reveals how his own personal journey might offer the promise of reconciliation for Taiwan’s long divided communities.