With its increasing wealth, a growing and better-educated urban population, and one of the world's largest trade surpluses, Taiwan has shed its identity as an impoverished, war-torn nation and joined the ranks of developed countries.

Yet, despite the attention focused on the country's profound transformation, surprisingly little information exists on the concomitant changes that have occurred within the cultural matrix of arts and literature, religion and ritual, and the everyday life of Taiwan's people.

This interdisciplinary study brings together perspectives from literature, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, history, philosophy, and art to explore the culture of a fully industrialized society with a traditional Chinese background. In addition, the contributors explore the importance of key cultural influences on Taiwan such as traditional Chinese agrarian society, the legacy of Japanese colonialism, the cosmopolitan West, and the unique aspects of the indigenous way of life.