Written by Hazem Almassry. Visiting Kinmen, a Taiwanese frontline-turned-tourist site, the author reflects on living under continuous threat, comparing it to Gaza. Both challenge conventional ideas of peace as post-conflict stability, revealing instead how people adapt to enduring militarisation and structural violence, in which “peace” often means managing rather than resolving ongoing conditions.
Written by Meiyuan Kou. This article traces the history of the Kinmen Association (Fuji Temple) in Saigon-Cholon, established in the early 1970s as both a religious hub for Kinmen migrants and a channel of Taiwan’s soft diplomacy in South Vietnam. It examines how this small community institution fostered transnational ties, cultural continuity, and identity preservation across shifting political landscapes before and after 1975.
Written by Junbin Tan. This article traces the Lin family’s multigenerational migration from wartime Kinmen Island to Southeast Asia and beyond. Anchored in an ethnographic encounter with Grandma Lin and her family, the author follows the Lins’ migratory trajectories of departure, separation and eventual return, revealing how Kinmenese mobility was shaped by political restriction, economic necessity, and the moral economies of kinship.
Written by Ian Murphy. This article critically examines infrastructure warfare and its application to the China-Taiwan conflict. Particularly, China’s development of the China-Kinmen water pipeline and the proposed Kinmen-Xiamen Bridge project raise concerns about its use of infrastructure as a tool of political coercion.
Written by I-Lin Liu. This article provides a critical analysis of the Oscar-nominated short documentary Island in Between, asking who the film is for and what lies beyond the representations. The author traces the history of when and how nonfiction films became a medium for intercultural communication, which resonates with the director’s experiences and goals for the film. Despite the film’s deliberate distance from forms of government-produced propaganda, connections can still be seen, particularly that government-sponsored or produced films, in fact, dwindled from the Best Documentary Short Film category decades after its establishment. In addition, the depiction of Kinmanese in the film, in conversation with national identities and boundaries, remains contested through the director’s lens.
Written by Chee-Hann Wu. This article argues that the Oscar-nominated short documentary Island in Between highlights the liminality and in-betweenness of both the island of Kinmen and the director’s diasporic identity. Rather than emphasizing its geopolitical significance and constant military presence, the short documentary focuses on the director’s personal journey and narrative, growing up in both Taiwan and the US, moving back to Taiwan in 2017, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, being drawn to Kinmen where his father served in the military. Through the director, the audience sees how he re-experiences Kinmen as a way to reconnect with a part of his identity, and is also able to reimagine Kinmen’s past and present.
