Taiwan's subjectivity and national narrations: towards acomparative perspective with Ireland

This paper looks at how Taiwan has been imagined or narrated as a national subject from the perspective of different nationalisms, using Ireland in the context of the colonized Other as a comparator. As with Irish nationalist projects, the Chinese nationalism of the KMT and the Taiwanese nationalism of the DPP were and are complex phenomena, with ethnic, cultural, and civic dimensions. However, in the cases of the KMT and of the DPP the civic dimension was either suspended or remained under-developed. This paper takes a critical view, focusing on ethnic and cultural nationalism to explore how the KMT and the DPP narrated their respective national imaginaries. The first framework examined shows how Taiwan was narrated as part of China through a particular form of Chineseness, which was imposed on Taiwan by the KMT. The second framework analyses how Taiwan was re-narrated through Taiwanization discourses as a national subject in its own right; in particular, through a post-modern primordialist turn by which the DPP used Taiwanization to stress identity politics. Critical interpretations here make use of a comparative perspective, re-examining notions of national subjectivity in juxtaposition with Ireland, whose own national imaginaries have, like those of Taiwan, also emphasized ethnicity and culture. The paper concludes by suggesting a third framework, emphasizing the need to pay attention to the cosmopolitan processes of mobilization and globalization. These can help us to reconsider Taiwan and Ireland as network societies that can be narrated in the light of relationships and connections through which they have been constituted as places

Transition to democracy at the expense of justice: the 2-28 Incident and White Terror in Taiwan

This paper discusses attempts at reconciliation that followed Taiwan’s transition to democracy after four decades (1947–1987) of political repression in which new settlers from the Chinese mainland, known as waishengren (provincial outsiders), suppressed a native population, known as benshengren (provincial natives), that had formerly experienced 50 years (1895–1945) of Japanese colonial rule. As a case study, I draw on field research undertaken between 2004 and 2006 in the village of Luku. I ask to what extent Taiwan has redressed the defining massacre that occurred on February 28, 1947, known as the 2-28 Incident, and the repression that followed, known as the White Terror (1949–1986). To what extent can Taiwan be sure that state terror will not recur? Further, what lessons are there for the “Arab Spring?

Isomeric triazines exhibit unique profiles of bioorthogonal reactivity.

Expanding the scope of bioorthogonal reactivity requires access to new and mutually compatible reagents. We report here that 1,2,4-triazines can be tuned to exhibit unique reaction profiles with biocompatible strained alkenes and alkynes. Computational analyses were used to identify candidate orthogonal reactions, and the predictions were experimentally verified. Notably, 5-substituted triazines, unlike their 6-substituted counterparts, undergo rapid [4 + 2] cycloadditions with a sterically encumbered strained alkyne. This unique, sterically controlled reactivity was exploited for dual bioorthogonal labeling. Mutually orthogonal triazines and cycloaddition chemistries will enable new multi-component imaging applications

Cost-effective upgrade of a focusing system for inelastic X-ray scattering experiments under high pressure

This paper describes a scheme utilizing a set of low-cost and compact Kirkpatrick–Baez mirrors for upgrading the optical system of the Taiwan Inelastic X-ray Scattering beamline at SPring-8 for high-pressure experiments using diamond-anvil cells. The scheme as implemented improves the focus to 13 µm × 16 µm with transmission of up to 72%

Authoritarianism in the Living Room: Everyday Disciplines, Senses, and Morality in Taiwan’s Military Villages

With the nationalist government – Kuomintang (KMT) – retreating from mainland China in 1949, some 600,000 military personnel relocated to Taiwan. The military seized former Japanese colonial properties and built its own settlements, establishing temporary military dependents’ villages called juancun (眷村). When the prospect of counter-attacking the mainland vanished, the KMT had to face the reality of settling permanently in Taiwan. How, then, did the KMT’s authoritarian power enter the everyday lives of its own support group? In this article I will focus on the coercive elements of KMT authoritarianism, which permeated these military villages in Taiwan. I will look at the coercive mechanisms through the analytical lens of Foucauldian discipline. I argue that disciplinary techniques such as surveillance, disciplining of the body and the senses, as well as the creation of morality regimes played an important role in the cooptation of village residents into KMT authoritarianism by normalising and naturalising it