Research and Publication Grant Awardee 2024
This article is dedicated to Li Peichen of Academia Sinica, who expertly opened the conference with her fascinating research, yet sadly passed away shortly after.
On the 11 March 2024, at Senate House University of London, Rudolph Ng of the University of Portsmouth and I hosted a conference entitled ‘New Perspectives on Maritime Taiwan’ in a project made possible by an EATS Research and Publication Grant. The conference sought to explore Taiwan’s salience in a burgeoning maritime trade in East Asia wrought with colonialities in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Three panels were held, focusing on the role of Taiwan’s authorities in managing maritime trade, the influence of commerce in shaping maritime Taiwan and on the processes of knowledge production in realising maritime Taiwan in the academy.
The first panel was expertly opened by Li Peichen of Academia Sinica, who very sadly passed away shortly after the conference, and to whom this article is dedicated. Li’s presentation built on her rich tapestry of scholarship on the importance of Taiwan’s institutions in regulating Taiwan’s camphor and sugar trades and on government–business relations in late 1800s Taiwan. Her presentation entitled ‘Dangerous Sea Routes: 19th Century Taiwan’s Official Efforts to Improve Maritime Rescue Efficiency’ discussed the fledgling efforts of Taiwan’s officials in improving maritime rescue efforts during the vast expansion of shipping traffic in the region, exploring how shipwrecks served to problematise Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, with the Mudan Incident in particular underscoring the fragmentary Chinese control over Eastern Taiwan. Crucially, her presentation sought to offer a ‘bottom up’ perspective, with the interaction of two cultures, both European and Chinese, integral to understanding 19th century Taiwan. Wei-chi Chen’s presentation followed, entitled ‘The British Royal Navy’s Survey on the Eastern Taiwan Coast and Suao Bay Area after the mid-Nineteenth Century and its Effects’ and explored how Taiwan, once seen as ‘terra incognita,’ was charted in the 1860s by British naval cartographers whose knowledge was then disseminated to Tokyo and Beijing through replica maps. Chen focused on how local knowledge underpinned British naval maps, with Robert Swinhoe engaging with local guides and informants to construct British knowledge of Suao Bay, exploring the intersection of military and commercial interests in the making of knowledge that served to facilitate Taiwan’s involuntary integration into East Asian trading structures. Both presentations were finely complemented by discussion from Weipin Tsai of Royal Holloway, University of London.
The second panel opened with a fascinating presentation by conference co-organiser Rudolph Ng of the University of Portsmouth who intriguingly posed the question ‘When did modern Taiwan start?’ Ng’s presentation, entitled ‘Douglas Steamship Company & the Opening of Taiwan’ posited that the establishment of a regular ferry service between China and Taiwan by the Douglas Steamship Company could serve as such a starting point, such was the influence of the passenger service on Taiwan’s contemporary history. His presentation explored the influence of regular movement of peoples, ideas and, indeed, Opium, between China, Hong Kong and Taiwan following the monopoly established by British businessman John Steward Lapraik. Such a thought-provoking proposal emphasises the confluence of the commercial and the colonial in the vast changes that swept through Taiwan in the 19th century. Marlon Zhu, of Academia Sinica, also underscored these ties in his presentation ‘Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the Receiving Ship System of Opium Trade in Nineteenth-Century Formosa’ which explored Taiwan’s role in the supply chain of Britain’s illicit trade of opium in China, focusing on the ‘receiving ship’ system that sought to circumvent restrictions on trade by using smaller fast ships to relay the narcotic whilst larger ships lay beyond Chinese maritime jurisdiction. Zhu’s enthralling introduction explored colonialities of Britain’s opium trade in Taiwan and the influence of vast commercial entities such as Jardine Matheson and Dent and Company. Further interesting discussion arose courtesy of Lily Chang of University College London.
The final panel was opened by Lu Cheng-heng from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University who presented a groundbreaking paper on ‘Russian Maritime Survey on Taiwan: A Study of Ivan Kruzenshtern’s Fleet to China in 1805.’ His enthralling work places Russia’s influence on Taiwan amidst the ‘map making movement’ of the early 19th century at its centre, exploring comparative imperial histories and the manner in which they sought to define Taiwan as a ‘borderland’ in East Asia. Lu presented a novel understanding of the vast colonialities embedded in perceptions of Taiwan, and how Japanese, Chinese and Russian maps meshed together in a ‘coincident encounter.’ Finally, Yu Po-Ching from National Chung-hsing University, who joined the conference by way of Zoom, gave a fine presentation titled ‘The Eastern Passage and British Knowledge of the Sea Areas between Taiwan and the Philippines in the late 18th Century.’ Yu’s vital research explored the importance of British maps in charting the notoriously tempestuous waters of the Luzon Strait and the threat they posed to shipping traffic in the late 18th century, and how British efforts to establish a new route between Malacca and China served to chart the waters off the coast of Eastern Taiwan and even offered Western perceptions of Taiwanese wildlife. Last but certainly not least, Douglas Fix from Reed College provided fascinating questions and conclusions to close the final panel.
Overall, the conference saw vast multidisciplinary exchange, animating some stimulating discussion and debate on maritime Taiwan’s historical and contemporary importance. Moreover, the conference enabled me, as a first-year PhD student, an invaluable opportunity to engage with expert Taiwanese scholars and thus greatly enhanced my holistic understanding of Taiwan’s regional and global importance. The EATS Research and Publication Grant was instrumental in realising these objectives and, more broadly, in hosting this fascinating event.
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank EATS’ Research and Publication Grant which was integral to the hosting of this conference.
Contributor Bio
Max Dixon is a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, studying British foreign policy and Taiwan between 1996 and 2021 funded by the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. His research interests include British historic and contemporary approaches to East Asia and the role of language in the construction of British foreign policy.