Most Taiwanese are Han Chinese, descendants of the 1644 migration of the Ming dynasty from mainland China. The 100,000 Nationalists, who arrived in 1949, established themselves as a ruling class and monopolized the most prestigious jobs in the civil service. This led to considerable resentment from the local inhabitants, but as the 1947 generation have aged, local Taiwanese have entered the political process.
There is little ethnic tension in Taiwan, although the indigenous minorities who live in the eastern hills do suffer considerable discrimination.
As in the rest of Southeast Asia, the extended family is still important and provides a social-security net for the elderly. However, the trend is toward European-style nuclear families, partly a result of housing shortages. Women are not well-represented in the political process, but are prominent in business and the civil service.
