“Together as the South: Multiple Historical Connections and Imaginations between Taiwan and Tropical World” Lecture Series

Speaker:
Jessica Marinaccio (Adviser to Tuvalu’s Government)

Host:
Wei-chi Chen (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica)

Topic:
Situating Taiwan Globally through Comprehensive Fisheries Histories: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Fisheries History in the Pacific
透過整合性漁業史看臺灣的全球位置：以臺灣在太平洋的漁業發展史為例

Date and Time:
Friday, May 8, 2026. 10:30-12:30

Place:
Room 802 at ITH

Language:
Mandarin Chinese

Registration:
Click Here to Register (redirecting to Chinese version)

Please Note:

1. This lecture is organized by the thematic project of “Together as the South: Multiple Historical Connections and Imaginations between Taiwan and Tropical World” and co-organized by the Environmental History Group and the Maritime History Group.
2. To register, please fill out the registration form by April 29 (Wed.). A confirmation notice will be emailed to successful registrants. Lunch will not be provided to walk-in attendees.
3. If you are not able to attend after registration, please contact us (email: smallno@gate.sinica.edu.tw).

Abstract:

Taiwan’s history as an integral part of regional and global fishing networks is a key vantage point from which to situate Taiwan within expansive global histories. This is not only from the perspective of the physical interaction between Taiwan fishing vessels and governments and peoples throughout the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, but also from the perspective of Taiwan’s impact through fisheries on global regimes including international law, diplomacy, migration, and immigration despite Taiwan’s relative absence from official international organizations in the modern period. Based on my own research on fisheries conflicts between the Republic of China (ROC) government, ROC/Taiwan fishing vessels, and Pacific governments and peoples after 1949, I construct an expansive history of ROC/Taiwan fisheries in the Pacific that highlights how this fisheries history links to and impacts ROC/Taiwan and Pacific/international diplomatic history, ROC/Taiwan and international legal history, and Chinese diasporic history in the Pacific region. This research is also contemporary: Taiwan’s current involvement in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Pacific emerges from its history of illegal fisheries in the region and continues to characterize perceptions of Taiwan by Pacific nations. Taiwan’s fisheries history is a powerful case showing Taiwan’s global reach throughout history and further suggests the importance of Taiwan in understanding the development of a variety of legal and mobility frameworks in the twentieth century.