本研究綜合了社會學與人種誌學的觀念，藉著和一群在族群、年齡、政黨傾向等變項上相互殊異的受訪者做深度訪談，作者試圖多面向地呈現台灣認同問題的複雜性，它不但受到集體的文化根源、歷史背景以及現代情境的影響，同時也受制於個人各自不同的社會位置與價值觀。 在探討台灣人民的認同問題時，針對「中國」這個概念，我們必須區分出「政治中國」以及「文化中國」這兩個部分；而本研究的目標就在於區分人們在國家認同以及文化認同之間的差別。作者主張：台灣人民所擁有的並非單一的認同，而是一個由許多不同民族與文化屬性所組成的認同體。一個人的國家認同並不一定和他的文化認同相符合，而這也是一個無法免除於中共壓力政治性選擇。

　　　　　This project is an audience study which attempts to demonstrate the complexity of the identity issue in Taiwan. Drawing on concepts from both ethnography and sociology, it situates its interviewees in a wider social and cultural environment, and tries to produce rich descriptive and interpretive accounts of their livers and values. The question of Taiwanese people's national and cultural identities cannot be separated from the historical cultural and political influence which comes from China. Focused on the variables of age, origin, and political party alliance, the study argues that in Taiwan, there is no single identity, but rather a set of diverse national and cultural identities which reflect the differences between the subjects of the study, in their construction of the spatial, of the temporal and of perspective. One's national identity is not necessarily congruent with his/her cultural identity, and it is a political choice which cannot be separated from the influence of Communist China.