Island Fantasia - Imagining Subjects on the Military Frontline Between China and Taiwan

An innovative ethnography and social history of the Matsu archipelago between China and Taiwan.

List of contents

Introduction: Imagining subject; Part I. History of the Matsu Archipelago: 1. Forbidden outpost; 2. Becoming a military frontline; 3. To leave or to stay?; 4. Gambling with the military state; Part II. New Technologies of Imagination: 5. Digital Matsu; 6. Online war memory; Part III. Fantasia of the Future: 7. Women and families in transition; 8. Community materialized through temple building; 9. Novel religious practices as imaginative works; 10. A dream of an 'Asian Mediterranean'; Conclusion: Becoming ourselves.

About the author

Wei-Ping Lin is Professor of Anthropology at National Taiwan University. She has previously held affiliations at the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Materializing Magic Power: Chinese Popular Religion in Villages and Cities (2015) which won the Academia Sinica Scholarly Monograph Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences. She edited Mediating Religion: Music, Image, Object and New Media (2018; in Chinese).

Summary

This in-depth study of the Matsu islands between China and Taiwan charts their sudden transition from a forbidden outpost in the Qing period to a military frontline during the Cold War and the Communist-Nationalist conflict, and showcases the cultural vibrancy of the people as they imagine their future.

Product details

• Authors: Wei-Ping Lin, Wei-Ping (National Taiwan University) Lin
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2021
• EAN: 9781316519370
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51937-0
• No. of pages: 250
• Series: Taiwan Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, Taiwan, 20th Century, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Asia / China, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Social and cultural history, Asian History