Taiwan Extra and the Future of Sinophone Studies

This talk proposes the notion of “extra-Taiwan” and “extra-Taiwaneseness” as a new strategy in Taiwan studies. This approach treats Taiwan as an epistemological condition, moves beyond the geophysical constraints of Taiwan as a bounded entity, and considers cross-border movements central to the construction of Taiwan and Taiwaneseness. The examples of diasporic indigeneity, tea nationalism, indigenous queerness, and Taiwan studies programs/centers outside Taiwan will illustrate how Taiwan studies as a field is already grasping with the notion of “extra-Taiwan.” Such formulation shares with Sinophone studies the agenda to decenter various forms of political hegemony (what I call the seven “original sins”), including nationalism, essentialism, imperialism, assimilationism, diaspora, disciplinary alienation, and heteronormativity. “Extra-Taiwan” also moves Sinophone studies in a direction that exemplifies minor transnationalism at its best: a type of minor transnationalism between two regions expressed outside those two original locations. Political opportunities such as these will be one of the greatest challenges confronting Taiwan studies in this century