Connecting Taiwan ― Participation ?Integration ?Impacts

Taiwan has often been characterised as an isolated society in its search for sovereignty and security. Its contact with the world in an era of globalization and post-modernity, however, has increasingly led to Taiwanese actors successfully participating in many regional and global fields.

In this book an international team of scholars presents cases studies and theoretical debates emphasising agency in coping with the effects of globalisation. In so doing, they contest the image of Taiwan’s marginalization and seek to understand it in terms of its connectedness, whether globally, regionally or trans-nationally. Taking a multi-disciplinary, comparative approach, it covers themes such as markets and trading, diplomacy and nation-branding, collective action, media and film, and religious mission. It thus combines perspectives from several disciplines including media studies, sociology, political science, and studies in religion.

Using Taiwan as an example of how to conceptualise connectivity and think differently about comparative studies, this book will be useful for students and scholars of Asian Politics and Cultural Studies, as well as of Taiwan Studies more specifically.

Carsten Storm is currently visiting fellow at the IKGF, University Erlangen-Nurnberg and teaches at the Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany. He works on Chinese and Taiwanese literature and film and focuses on narrative and aesthetic strategies in creating meaning and coherence.