The Trouble with Taiwan


Book Description

‘Fresh and authoritative, written with brio and precision.’ Thomas Plate, author of Yo-Yo Diplomacy ‘An important and timely guide to one of the most dangerous potential flashpoints for future conflict between the West and China.’James Griffiths, author of The Great Firewall of China ‘Brown and Wu Tzu-hui help situate a Taiwan whose “place” in the world is otherwise plagued by uncertainty.’ Benjamin Zawacki, author of Thailand




The Twainian


Book Description




State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle


Book Description

Explores the application of constructivist theory to international relations. The text examines the relevance of constructivism for empirical research, focusing on some of the key issues of contemporary international politics: ethnic and national identity; gender; and political economy.




Outcasts of Empire


Book Description

Introduction : empires and indigenous peoples, global transformation and the limits of international society -- From wet diplomacy to scorched earth : the Taiwan expedition, the Guardline and the Wushe rebellion -- The long durée and the short circuit : gender, language and territory in the making of indigenous Taiwan -- Tangled up in red : textiles, trading posts and ethnic bifurcation in Taiwan -- The geobodies within a geobody : the visual economy of race-making and indigeneity




The Taiwan Voter


Book Description

The Taiwan Voter examines the critical role ethnic and national identities play in politics, utilizing the case of Taiwan. Although elections there often raise international tensions, and have led to military demonstrations by China, no scholarly books have examined how Taiwan’s voters make electoral choices in a dangerous environment. Critiquing the conventional interpretation of politics as an ideological battle between liberals and conservatives, The Taiwan Voter demonstrates in Taiwan the party system and voters’ responses are shaped by one powerful determinant of national identity—the China factor. Taiwan’s electoral politics draws international scholarly interest because of the prominent role of ethnic and national identification. While in most countries the many tangled strands of competing identities are daunting for scholarly analysis, in Taiwan the cleavages are powerful and limited in number, so the logic of interrelationships among issues, partisanship, and identity are particularly clear. The Taiwan Voter unites experts to investigate the ways in which social identities, policy views, and partisan preferences intersect and influence each other. These novel findings have wide applicability to other countries, and will be of interest to a broad range of social scientists interested in identity politics.




Taiwan: A New History


Book Description

This is a comprehensive portrait of Taiwan. It covers the major periods in the development of this small but powerful island province/nation. The work is designed in the style of the multi-volume "Cambridge History of China".




Transitions in Taiwan


Book Description

"Taiwan's peaceful and democratic society is built upon on decades of authoritarian state violence that it is still coming to terms with. Following 50 years of Japanese colonization, Taiwan was occupied by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at the close of World War II in 1945. The party massacred thousands of Taiwanese while it established a military dictatorship on the island with the tacit support of the United States. Although early episodes of state violence (such as the 228 Incident in 1947) and post-1980s democratization in Taiwan have received a significant amount of literary and scholarly attention, relatively less has been written or translated about the White Terror and martial law period, which began in 1949. The White Terror was aimed at alleged proponents of Taiwanese independence as well as supposed communist collaborators wiped out an entire generation of intellectuals. Both native-born Taiwanese as well as mainland Chinese exiles were subject to imprisonment, torture, and execution. During this time, the KMT institutionally favored mainland Chinese over native-born Taiwanese and reserved most military, educational, and police positions for the former. Taiwanese were forcibly "re-educated" as Chinese subjects. China-centric national history curricula, forced Mandarin-language pedagogy and media, and the re-naming of streets and public spaces after places in China further enforced a representational regime of Chineseness to legitimize the authority of the KMT, which did not lift martial law until 1987. Taiwan's contemporary commitment to transitional justice and democracy hinges on this history of violence, for which this volume provides a literary treatment as essential as it is varied. This is among the first collection of stories to comprehensively address the social, political, and economic aspects of White Terror, and to do so with deep attention to their transnational character. Featuring contributions from many of Taiwan's most celebrated authors, and written in genres that range between realism, satire, and allegory, it examines the modes and mechanisms of the White Terror and party-state exploitation in prisons, farming villages, slums, military bases, and professional communities. Transitions in Taiwan: Stories of the White Terror is an important book for Taiwan studies, Asian Studies, literature, and social justice collections. This book is part of the Literature from Taiwan Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and National Taiwan Normal University"--




One China, Many Taiwans


Book Description

One China, Many Taiwans shows how tourism performs and transforms territory. In 2008, as the People's Republic of China pointed over a thousand missiles across the Taiwan Strait, it sent millions of tourists in the same direction with the encouragement of Taiwan's politicians and businesspeople. Contrary to the PRC's efforts to use tourism to incorporate Taiwan into an imaginary "One China," tourism aggravated tensions between the two polities, polarized Taiwanese society, and pushed Taiwanese popular sentiment farther toward support for national self-determination. Consequently, Taiwan was performed as a part of China for Chinese group tourists versus experienced as a place of everyday life. Taiwan's national identity grew increasingly plural, such that not just one or two, but many Taiwans coexisted, even as it faced an existential military threat. Ian Rowen's treatment of tourism as a political technology provides a new theoretical lens for social scientists to examine the impacts of tourism in the region and worldwide.




Imperial Gateway


Book Description

In Imperial Gateway, Seiji Shirane explores the political, social, and economic significance of colonial Taiwan in the southern expansion of Japan's empire from 1895 to the end of World War II. Challenging understandings of empire that focus on bilateral relations between metropole and colonial periphery, Shirane uncovers a half century of dynamic relations between Japan, Taiwan, China, and Western regional powers. Japanese officials in Taiwan did not simply take orders from Tokyo; rather, they often pursued their own expansionist ambitions in South China and Southeast Asia. When outright conquest was not possible, they promoted alternative strategies, including naturalizing resident Chinese as overseas Taiwanese subjects, extending colonial police networks, and deploying tens of thousands of Taiwanese to war. The Taiwanese—merchants, gangsters, policemen, interpreters, nurses, and soldiers—seized new opportunities for socioeconomic advancement that did not always align with Japan's imperial interests. Drawing on multilingual archives in six countries, Imperial Gateway shows how Japanese officials and Taiwanese subjects transformed Taiwan into a regional gateway for expansion in an ever-shifting international order. Thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Open Book Program and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.




Taiwan in 100 Books


Book Description

Taiwan in 100 Books is the distillation of hundreds of titles and decades of reading into a riveting narrative of Taiwan from the early sixteenth century to the present. Long-time resident John Ross, the author of You Don't Know China and Formosan Odyssey, delves into the most acclaimed, interesting, and influential books on Taiwan, along with some personal favorites. Most entries are non-fiction works originally published in English (translated Chinese-language books will be covered in a separate upcoming title). Relive Taiwan's most dramatic historical event in Lord of Formosa and Lost Colony. Learn about the White Terror in A Pail of Oysters, Green Island, and Formosa Betrayed. Discover dated "time capsule" accounts such as Flight to Formosa and Taipei After Dark, and others like John Slimming's Green Plums and a Bamboo Horse that have stood the test of time. Turn the pages of obscure books such as The Jing Affair and Dragon Hotel, undeserved best-sellers like the The Soong Dynasty, and some of the best academic works. Experience unique facets of life in Taiwan in Shots from the Hip: Sex, Drugs and the Tao and Barbarian at the Gate: From the American Suburbs to the Taiwanese Army. Follow authors on their quests, whether conservationists going undercover to expose the illegal wildlife trade, adoptees returning to find their biological parents, or foodies in search of the perfect beef noodle soup. Taiwan in 100 Books is an accessible introduction to works on the country and and an enjoyable shortcut to understanding the country's history and culture. It's also a bibliophile's elixir packed with the backstories of the authors and the books themselves; there are tales of outrageous literary fraud, lost manuscripts, banned books, and publishing skulduggery.