族群認同在臺灣是相當敏感的議題，而近二十年以來各調研機構所做的民意調查大多呈現一個共同的趨勢，即臺灣的民眾否認自己是中國人的比例日益升高。然而，在事實上，臺灣人絕大部分就是中國人，臺灣人的先祖多來自閩南一帶，帶來閩南的語言、飲食、風俗、信仰皆是從中國傳承過來，「中國」一詞一直以來就是個歷史與文化上的概念，而不是現代主權國家的正式國號。為何就在這二十多年來臺灣人才日益否認自己是中國人？對此，本文主張，會有這種現象，一方面是教育的刻意灌輸，這反映在年輕世代身上；至於較年長的世代則是不想被誤認為「中（華人民共和）國人」，除了少數特定背景者之外，臺灣人大多是可以不否認自己也是中國人。本文將以問卷調查加以驗證。 Ethnic identity is a sensitive topic in Taiwan. For recent 20 years, various survey institutions are getting a similar trend on their results-the proportion of Taiwan population denying being Chinese is on the rise. However, a big part of the ethnic in Taiwan population is in fact Chinese descendent. Most of current Taiwan residents are descendants of their Chinese ancestors that had immigrated to Taiwan from China, mainly from southern China region. Those early immigrant brought along their language, dialect, food, culture, religion, etc. ＂China＂ & ＂Chinese＂ have all along been a concept in the history and culture in this part of the world. They do not just stand alone as a modern sovereignty. So why are there more and more people denying being Chinese in the past two decades? This thesis will prove that most Taiwan people can identify themselves as Chinese. The increase in population in denial is on one hand the education by design that reflect now on the younger generation, while for senior generations it's a way to distinguish themselves from people of PRC-the communist run government). The author believes with proper clarification and guidance, people in Taiwan, except for some with specific background, can be comfortable with their ethnic identity as Chinese. This thesis will prove this argument with a questionnaire survey.
