The editors of this book have had to struggle first with the translation of the term "bentuhua" into English, which could mean "localization" "indigenization" or "Taiwanization." Adopting the correct equivalent in English was difficult for the authors so they used the translation most appropriate to each context. The Chinese term is generally understood as a trend toward "indigenization," which is considered the most important cultural and political movement in the past 25 years in Taiwan.

"In Taiwan, indigenization has functioned as a type of nationalism that champions the legitimacy of a distinct Taiwanese identity, the character and content of which should be determined by the Taiwanese people," John Makeham says in the introduction to the study of the phenomenon of identity search in the nation of 23 million people.

J. Bruce Jacobs cited a well known phrase by former President Lee Teng-hui: "What actually is the goal of Taiwan's democratization? Speaking simply, it is the 'Taiwanization of Taiwan' (Taiwan de bentuhua)."

This quest for identity began long ago. During the Japanese occupation (1895 to 1945), various attempts were made to find an identity for the islanders, including assimilation with the Japanese, with the local Taiwanese and also considering Taiwanese to be Chinese.

Jacobs says the concept of "bentu" unifies the writers of this book even though they fail to agree on a single translation of the term. "Bentu" means "this earth," which could lead to meaning "local products," "one's native land" or "metropolitan land." During author workshops to discuss Taiwan's movement toward reaching an identity, Jacobs says "Taiwanization" could be the correct translation, because the term focuses on Taiwan as opposed to mainland China. Jacobs analyzes the progression of democracy and nationalism under the presidencies of Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, which steered Taiwanese to focus their existence on their own island. Overall, it has been recognized that the process of democratization led to a wave of nationalism in Taiwan. The clash between mainlanders - primarily the Kuomintang leadership, their supporters and troops that came from China after 1945 - and native Taiwanese has become a part in the history of the political life in Taiwan. But adult children of mainlanders are now thinking of themselves and their future as "Taiwanese Taiwan" as opposed to "Chinese Taiwan," says Jacobs. Lee Teng-hui's declaration in 1999 that the cross-Strait relations are a "state-to-state" relationship and the election of Chen Shui-bian to the presidency in 2000 pushed the issue of a separate identity up in the scale of consciousness in the political life of Taiwanese.

Author A-chin Hsiau prefers to call it "indigenization" because he says the term "bentuhua" means that the uniqueness of Taiwanese society, culture and history should be appreciated and interpreted from the viewpoints of the Taiwanese themselves and not from outsiders. The literature dealing with the "bentuhua" trend has provoked fierce debate on the ethnicity, politics and nationalism in Taiwan, Hsiau says.

Author Fu-chang Wang explores the way in which "bentuhua" has been implemented in textbooks, starting with the decision in 1989 by the minister of education to add a new course on "Renshi Taiwan", or "getting to know Taiwan," for seventh graders. At the time, this did not appear controversial. But when the textbooks were distributed to all schools in 1997, they provoked a war in the media and the public. The author says people may agree on the principles of "bentuhua," but not the application. Other aspects of "bentuhua" can also be found, says Jeremy E. Taylor, who discusses what he calls the built environment in Taiwan to show that geography, rivers and mountains, and vestiges such as tombs and ruined cities are parts of the trend toward identity. As an example, the sight of beautiful mountains and river can arouse patriotic feelings.

A-chin Hsiau says that the re-election of Chen Shui-bian in 2004 represented a further consolidation of the indigenization trend in Taiwan politics. But the author asks one interesting question, which is whether that trend, particularly in the cultural sphere, is a reaction to globalization, which impacts all countries in the world. Perhaps Taiwan felt the need or was under pressure to find its own cultural and political identity separate from China in order to deal with the increasing effects of interactions in the international community.