Reorientating Taiwan: Ocean, Selfhood, and the Pacific

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72712-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 05, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Reihe: Brill Series in Taiwan Studies

Reorientating Taiwan: Ocean, Selfhod, and the Pacific redefines how you see Taiwan, moving beyond land-centred perspective to embrace its deep connection with the Pacific. This interdisciplinary collection takes you on a journey through anthropology, literature, ecology, and art, revealing Taiwan as a cradle of Austronesian expansion and a hub of oceanic entanglements. You’ll discover how Taiwan’s vibrant marine culture influences its identity, from Indigenous traditions to contemporary environmental activism. This book invites you to explore Taiwan’s cultural and ecological narratives in a way that is both profound and transformative.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Alsford, Niki J.P.

Chang, Ti-Han

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Contributors

Introduction: Reorientating Taiwan as a Pacific Island Niki J.P. Alsford

PART 1: New Waves of Ocean Thinking

1 O Riyar ko Singsi Niyam/The Ocean is Our Teacher Oceanic Dialogues in Amis Contemporary Art DJ W. Hatfield

2 The Politics of Cloth Barkcloth in the Context of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists Niki J. P. Alsford

PART 2: Oceanic Writing and Translation in Literature

3 Topography, Archipelagic Imaginary and Eco-criticism Three Modalities of Oceanic Writing from Contemporary Taiwan Pei-yin Lin

4 Translate the Sea Oceanicity and Decoloniality in Syaman Rapongan’s Works Gwennaël Gaffric

5 From the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea Fuyanren and Its Translations into Catalan and Italian Antonio Paoliello-Palermo and Mireia Vargas-Urpí

PART 3: Ocean and Marine Representations in Art and Media

6 Oceans and Isles in Contemporary Taiwanese Comics Environment, Art, and Identity Norbert Danysz

7 The Oceanic Turn in Taiwan’s Environmental Discourse Issues of Marine Ecosystem in Two Taiwanese Activist Eco-documentaries Kuei-fen Chiu and Hsing-juh Lin

PART 4: Oceanic Entanglements: Encounter of the Human and Nonhuman Worlds

8 Oceanic Nodes of Entanglement Taiwan in a Meshwork of Human-Avian Lives Scott E. Simon

9 Entanglements between the Land and the Sea The Case of Tao People and their More-than-Liquid Identity Julien Laporte

10 “Those Fishes have Ph.D.” The Interactions between Reef Fishes and Underwater Spearfishing Men among Amis People in Taiwan Futuru C. L. Tsai

Reflection: Pacific Cetaceans and the Oceanic Turn in Taiwan Hung-chi Liao (translated by Ti-han Chang)

Conclusion: Framing an Oceanic Narrative for Taiwan Studies in UK Higher Education and Beyond Ti-han Chang

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Niki J.P. Alsford is Professor of Anthropology and Human Geography, and Director for the Institutes for the Study of the Asia Pacific (ISAP), and the Institute for Area and Migration Studies (AMIS) at the University of Central Lancashire. He is a Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Alsford's research focuses primarily on Taiwan, Korea, and the Pacific Islands. He is the book series editor for the Taiwan series at Brill, the Korean series at Routledge, and a new series on Asia Pacific Cultures, Communities, and Landscapes at Palgrave Macmillan. He is the author of Taiwan Lives: A Socio-Political History, published by the University of Washington Press in 2024.

Ti-han Chang is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. Her research focuses on contemporary eco-literature and postcolonial studies in Taiwan and the wider region of Asia Pacific. She has published a number of articles, reviews and translations in the relevant fields. She is also the co-editor of A Transdisciplinary Study of Global Mobilities: Identities on the Move (Springer, 2025).