Abstract：
This essay traces my personal research experiences and trajectory, reflecting in particular on my engagement with frontier or border studies. I divide this research experience into four main periods: research on the Taiwanese feminist movement; research on Taiwan’s imagined geography; research on Eurasian biracial identity; and Inter-Asian Studies. As a result of the research topics I have pursued over the years, I have spent my intellectual career at the margins, studying frontiers, borderlands, contact zones, mixed-race, and diasporas. I have come to realize that existing on the margins of academia or scholarly institutions is not a condition I seek to avoid, for it is at the margins and borders, I argue, that one can gain essential insights about the center, insights that come in both positive and negative form. Over the years, I have gained great intellectual stimulation and energy from studying one marginalized place in particular – Taiwan. This essay also critiques the North American-centric tendencies of North American academia, and the ethnocentric presumptions that often characterize Western scholarship. Finally, I emphasize that although we are used to considering Taiwan as a peripheral place, viewed from various critical standpoints, it is worth asking: which is periphery and which is center?

Keywords：Taiwan History, History of Feminism, Race Studies, Frontier Studies, Diaspora Studies

Abstract：
Local legal traditions, as opposed to global trends, serve as the main reason against the decriminalization of adultery in contemporary Taiwan. To further understand the past traditions, this paper examines the legal sanction of adultery and abduction (of women) in Qing Taiwan. Related existing studies on legal history of China rely mainly on judicial documents of the central authority, such as the Great Qing Legal Code, also known as the Qing Code, or the Penal Memorials to the Throne. This study focuses more on the legal traditions related to such cases at the local government level. Re-examining the adultery and abduction cases recorded in the Tan-Hsin Archives revealed that these cases were often unresolved, and the prevailing related laws were rarely or not put into effect. Further exploring the reasons behind such situation showed that in litigations among families, chastity of female members was often called into question, and bringing a false charge of abduction was a common strategy by ex-husbands in disputes of wife-selling. When the litigants dropped the charges, the magistrates would then stop the investigation and close the cases without reservation. Even when the litigants would like to probe and pursue further, limited resources and capability of the local court made in-depth investigation difficult, and the truth behind the cases was seldom uncovered. Of the “abducted” women, most remained missing; and those brought into courts were usually arrested by their relatives, rather than the authority. Going beyond “law in book” to examine “law in action” would show that legal sanction of adultery and abduction was arguably not a tradition commonly practiced in Taiwan under Qing rule.

Keywords：Legal Tradition, Historicize, Adultery, Abduction, Tan-Hsin Archives, Local Government, Litigation, Action, Institution

Abstract：
Taking Taiwanese diaries as a starting point for discussion, this article explores the impact and significance of beriberi problem in Japanese-ruled Taiwan. In the early days of that period, beriberi was first prevalent among the Japanese, but modern institutions later became strongholds to spread beriberi to the Taiwanese. The contradiction lies in the fact that the modern institutions, which acted as civilized facilities in the colony, carried harmful factors of spreading the disease. Although micronutrient vitamins were already discovered in the 1910s, Japanese imperial medicine was not settled on the cause of beriberi, which hindered its sound medical progress. When the international Association of Far Eastern Tropical Medicine discussed prevention and control measures for beriberi in the 1920s, Japan preferred nutrition education, rather than actively resorting to legislation to control the rice and nutrition as the Western colonial countries did. In this regard, the history of beriberi in colonial Taiwan is highly different from that in the Western colonies. Furthermore, considering the subjective experience of the Taiwanese, the beriberi problem experienced by Taiwanese patients and physicians was their own unique historical experience. This article analyzes the medical status of three patients at different times, in which it reflects not only the authority of imperial medicine and the progress of Japanese beriberi policy interlinked by the colonial medicine, but also the educational and generational differences of the patients. This paper also points out that there were three Taiwanese physicians engaged in research dialogues in the interstices between imperial medicine and colonial medicine, and relatively highlighted the subjective position of their researches.

Keywords：Beriberi, Imperial Medicine, Colonial Medicine, The Association of Far Eastern Tropical Medicine, Postcolonial Research Taiwanese, In Colonial Taiwan

Abstract：
Previous research on the relationship between Taiwan and Fujian during the Japanese colonial era focused mainly on the evolution of Taiwan Government-General’s southern expansion policy and the activities of Taiwanese in Fujian. In contrast, this article explores the exchange activities on economic planning and development as well as agricultural investigation between Fujian and Taiwan during 1934-1937, a topic which has received little academic attention. The present study found that after Chen Yi became the governor of Fujian province in 1934, official interactions between Fujian and Taiwan became increasingly frequent. A series of exchange activities related to economic planning and development as well as agricultural investigation were conducted. Officials from Fujian carried out three large-scale investigations on Taiwan’s economic and agricultural development; while experts of agricultural administration and water conservancy were sent by the Taiwan Government-General to Fujian for inspection on economic development and consultation on agricultural technology. This article highlights the complex relationships of these exchange activities with Fujian’s policy of emulating economic planning and development of Taiwan, as well as Taiwan’s southern expansion policy. Moreover, it further analyzes the different intentions of the Taiwan Government-General and Fujian Provincial Government behind the cooperation and exchanges. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of these exchanges on the modernization of Fujian Provincial Government administration especially its agrarian reform, another issue that has been overlooked by the academic circles.

Keywords：Learning from Taiwanese Economic Development, Agricultural Investigation, Exchange of Knowledge, Southern Expansion Policy, Fujian’s Administrative Modernization

Abstract：
Over the past decade, research on Taiwan history in mainland China (general research and the pre-modern era) has made great progress in both breadth and depth. Particularly prominent is the study of Qing Taiwan history, with significant achievements in data collation and academic publications. Among the various fields, political history, social history and cultural history have aroused much research interest, while studies on economic history are less popular. It is worth noting that the mainland scholars are more interested in the study of aborigines than before, revealing the growth in diversity and depth of Taiwan history research in mainland China. Moreover, statistics on publications also indicates higher proportion of historical studies on cross-strait relations. Such dominance in research can be attributed to greater emphasis of mainland scholars on reconstruction of cross-strait historical ties of specific eras and availability of literature and archived documents conducive to related studies. Interaction between compilation of historical documents and academic research in mainland China has proved to be mutually beneficial. On one hand, systemic compilation of historical documents collected facilitates in-depth research; on the other hand, academic research promotes further collation and organization of historical documents. Fruits of such interaction have been seen in compilation of public-sector archives and civil contracts as well as increasing achievements as a result of cross-strait academic exchanges.

Keywords：Taiwan History Studies in Mainland China, China General Research, Premodern Part, Journal Paper, Monograph, Compilation of Historical Documents

Abstract：
In recent years, research on Taiwan history during the Japanese colonial era and early retrocession period has been growing in mainland China. Related studies on political history, economic history, cultural and educational history, literature history, aboriginal history and historical figures, as well as the discovery, organization, and publication of related archives and historical materials have also flourished. While numerous mainland Chinese scholars are engaged in Taiwan history research of these two periods, the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies at Xiamen University and the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences remain the two leading institutes in this research field. Despite of differences in opinion, there has been extensive cross-strait academic exchange. Nevertheless, in terms of research field and paradigm, few interdisciplinary studies, little research on relationships between the colonies and their colonizer Japan, adequate use of historical materials in foreign languages, and scant field studies are drawbacks and limitations to be overcome by mainland Chinese academics.

Keywords：Mainland China, Taiwan History Research, Japanese Colonial Era, Early Retrocession Period