Exploring Transculturality in Taiwan; An Ongoing Reflective Self-Narrative Study of a Dutchman's Transcultural Experience of Living in Taiwan

This dissertation examines the concept of transculturality as proposed by Wolfgang Welsch and explores what is required to meet the conditions that he has set for transculturality to occur (Welsch, 2001), and how it apples to my own life experience. To this end, I narrativize the events of my life and create my own life story, in the manner as described by Jerome Bruner (Bruner, 1990). The dissertation thus presents a longitudinal reflective self-narrative study or autoethnography, of my transcultural experience of moving away from The Netherlands to Taiwan and living there. The research questions that I embark on to answer as a result of my study, are: (1) whether the mainstream theory of acculturation as argued by John W. Berry adequately describes my experience, and if not, whether the concept of transculturality offers a better way of structuring and understanding such experience; (2) whether I can establish an example of transcultural experience through narrativization of my own life story; and (3) whether there is such a thing as “transcultural identity”. This study leads me to the
conclusion that mainstream acculturation theory is inadequate to understand my own experience, and
that the identity that I formed during my time of living in Taiwan is best described as a transcultural
identity. To show this, I will provide insight in how a coherent combination of diverse theories,
including Buddhism, can form a new model. With this study and by providing (a scholarly examination of) an example of how a person forms a transcultural identity, I contribute to the discussion on the issue and application of the concept of transculturality.