Story-telling and Democracy

An Analysis of Ethnic Dialogue Workshop in Civil Society

FAN, Yun (范雲 ) Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University

2013@Haidelberg University

The Voice of the People ：Ethnic Dialogue within Civil Society

To Ponder on a Practical Question

How to facilitate democratic dialogue between ethnic groups

and followed by possible reconciliation？

The ProcessParticipants• 28 out of 395 volunteers (purposive sampling by

party identification, age, education, ethnicity)

The Two-day ForumDay 1 • Self-introduction: Photos and Story-telling• Issues Discussion• Documentary-viewing and DiscussionDay 2• Open Space

Scholarly Reflections after Sociological Intervention

Now An Activist-turned Scholar…

THEORETICAL CONCERNS

1. Deliberative Democracy and Its Critics2. The Possibility of Story-telling as a way

toward multi-cultural Deliberation

Story-telling as a Possible Remedy?

1. Low threshold for women and those disadvantaged (Young 2000 & Mansbridge 1999) 。

2. Building Trust and Public Identity of the Issue (Ryfe 2006)

3. Emotional listening: Particularizing the Universal; Universalizing the Particular (Polletta 2006; Alexander )

My Empirical Questions

1. Who are more likely to tells stories?2. In what contexts do people use stories as

strategies?3. What are people’s reactions to stories?4. In what way does story-telling enhance/or

hinder democracy?

Data and MethodData‧ coding 662‧ define: Narrative Claim”  86‧ define : “Non-narrative Claim” 247‧ main Var.: gender, education, ethnicity

Method Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Main Finding 1: Who Tells Stories?

‧ Women are more likely than men to tell stories

‧ Aboriginal & Haka are more likely than Hoklo and Mainlanders to tell stories

‧ The highly-educated are more likely than the lower-educated to tell stories

Main Finding2: In what context do people use stories as strategies ？‧ Identity is a story‧ disadvantaged group’s traumatic

experiences

Identity is a story

“I am Chinese, and I am also Taiwanese. I have no problem being Chinese because I came to

Taiwan from the mainland when I was 15 years old.

Now I am 73 years old. I have lived in Taiwan more than fifties years. Am I not Taiwanese?”

Identity is a story

• 這次主辦單位有四個選項，我通通都經歷過 ,在我的人生如果分為一半的話，我 17 歲以下 ,我絕對是不折不扣的中國 人，我爸爸是外省人，我爸爸跟傅伯伯一樣是安徽人，我從 小就有大中國的沙文主義，非常嚴重。• ...... 之後呢，我 17 歲的〔那〕年發現我有平埔族的血統，那我從此開始尋根。

~continue• ...... 我曾經到阿美族的部落住過一段時

間 ,..... 之後我慢慢說 , 就是我 的原住民意識越來越強了以後，我參加了很多很多原住民的 活動…。一直到我有機 會到國外去唸書，當別人問我說： Where are you from? 當我回答： I am from Taiwan，我才聽到我心裡頭真正的聲音。

~continue

• 那我覺得台灣是一個多元族群的國家 , 我的身上有外省的血統，有原住民、平埔族的血統，也 有本省的血統，因為你們知道平埔族一定是有跟本省人通婚 過，那我的外婆有一點點，所以我有三個族群的血統，覺得 這就是台灣，我是台灣人。

Traumatic Experiences of Disadvantaged group(in Mandarine) When I was a child

(in Hoklo) Wanshin-e

(in Mandarine) treat us Taiwanese

(in Hoklo) like, you Taiwanese, are low. It means

(in Mandarine) You Taiwanese are low class. He would think this way.

（ in Mandarine ） I went to high school in Kaoshiung,. When I came to study in Taipei, I also worked part-time. I went to the insurance company during the day time. People there would say:

（ in Hoklo ） I-yo, you speak, i-yo, you speak in the southern tone. What are you speaking?!

（ in Mandarine ） It’s weird that he thinks my accent is strange. And he seems like looking down on us.

Main Finding 3: What’s the other’s reaction to story-telling?‧ More appreciations ---Iris Young’s point on mental massage‧ fewer debates ---but can story-telling deliberate?

Main Finding 4: Stories can still deliberate, but in a different way

‧ stories use emotional connection as a way of persuasion

‧ ”ambiguity” is the resources of stories

Building emotional connection by sharing similar experiences “When the government started to let people visit

China, I worked at a travel agency. I stepped on the soil of China. I had a feeling: The world will become a Chinese’s (中國人 ) world.

At that time, I did have ‘the great Chinese’(大中國 ) mentality. If one day, we all become Chinese, and then the world would belong to the Chinese. I did feel that way at that time.”

~continue

“But, later, I entered China again and again. My feeling

became something different than I originally thought.

Its economic institution and social institutionare too far away from ours. We cannot accept. It’s like the martial era Taiwan just gone through.

Do we want to go back to the past? No, I will never agree to walk back to the past.”

Discussion and Conclusion[Theoretical Implications] What’s the relationship beteen Story-telling and

democracy?

1. Disadvantaged group and equal participation 2. Appreciation and trust 3. Expressing identity and recognition 4. Ambiguity and possibility of change 5. Re-authoring and sense of agency

Discussion and Conclusion

[Practical Implications for Taiwan’s Democracy]

‧ more than learning democratic discussion‧ creating diverse ways of democratic

discussion