Between Far Formosa and the True North: What Canada-Taiwan Relations Reveal about the Emergent Inter-state System
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
- Venue
- Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London
- Room
- BGLT
About this event
Canada-Taiwan relations began on December 31, 1871, when George Leslie Mackay arrived in Kaohsiung to serve in the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. 152 year later, Canada now calls Taiwan its 13th largest trading partner and the 5th largest in Asia.
In the interim, Taiwan has been ruled by the Qing Dynasty, Japan, and the Republic of China; and become targeted for annexation by the People’s Republic of China. In the same period, Canada expanded its territorial claims across the North American continent, and gradually established itself as an independent country with an autonomous foreign policy. In neither place did this process happen without violence.
The biggest changes for both societies happened in the wake of World War II, when the nascent United Nations, associated international organizations, and the San Francisco Peace Treaty established an international rule-of-law system with the goal of attaining universal peace. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz baptized this emergent system the “integrative revolution,” especially when decolonizing states took on the institutions of nation-states with diplomatic corps, passports and national flags, but found themselves faced with complex societies and histories that did not articulate easily with new global expectations.
As one particular political ontology, often called the Westphalian system, was imposed on the entire planet, it met with resistance as well as compliance, and sometimes even ignited new conflicts. Indigenous resurgence, in Canada and Taiwan as well as elsewhere, is only the latest manifestation of non-Westphalian yearnings for sovereignty.
Canada and Taiwan are both still in a process of emergence. In this survey of turning points in Canada-Taiwan relations, I explore how Canada has navigated relations with the Republic of China, with the People’s Republic of China, and with Taiwan as an independent entity in its own right, often against strong historical headwinds. I note the continuing existence of alternative Indigenous political ontologies in both places. The Canada-Taiwan relationship, if viewed as one between peoples, societies and places rather than between states, reveals much about the chimeric “One China” notion, but also about the emergent inter-state system itself.
Speaker's bio
Prof. Scott E. Simon
Scott E. Simon is a socio-anthropologist (Ph.D., McGill University, 1998), Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies. He is co-holder of the Chair of Taiwan Studies at the University of Ottawa.
Engaged in Taiwan Studies since 1996, he has accumulated over 10 years of field research and residence in Taiwan. Additionally, he has conducted fieldwork in Guam and Japan. His areas of interest in research are indigenous rights, development, Taiwan's involvement in the Indo-Pacific, its international standing, and relations between Taiwan and Canada. He has written four books and numerous articles about Taiwan.
He also conducts research policy-oriented research as a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa and as an academic member of the Centre for International Policy Studies and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa.
About 2023 SOAS Taiwan Studies Summer School
The Centre of Taiwan Studies (CTS) at the SOAS, University of London is excited to present a 2.5-day Summer School programme filled with engaging talks, seminars, and roundtables, taking place right after the EATS annual conference from the afternoon of June 28th to June 30th, 2023.
In our commitment to promoting the study of Taiwan, we are pleased to offer free and open-to-public attendance for the Summer School. We highly encourage individuals from all walks of life who are interested in Taiwanese culture and Taiwan studies attend our course.
