Written by Ting-Sian Liu and Yi-Ting Chung. This article reflects on the NATSA 2025 Closing Forum, honoring 30 years of community-building. Invited scholars offered critical feedback on NATSA’s history, its shift from politics toward decoloniality, queerness, and care, and the conference’s “otherwise” theme. The discussion emphasised activist-driven scholarship and collective labour as acts of care and solidarity for the future of Taiwan Studies.
Written by Yun-Pu Tu. This article reflects on the “Otherwise Literature: Against the Mainstream” panel, a collaboration between NATSA and the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, which explored how storytelling bridges cultures and challenges dominant narratives. Featuring writers and translators including Shawna Yang Ryan, Lya Shaffer Osborn, and Yung-ta Chien, the event highlighted the power of words and storytelling to connect communities and imagine Taiwan otherwise.
Written by Yi-Yu Lai. This article examines how a roundtable at the 2025 NATSA rethinks Taiwan through the lens of Island Studies. Drawing on case studies from Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Palau, Lanyu, and Batanes, it explores how islandness complicates questions of identity, scale, and connection within and beyond Taiwan.
Written by the NATSA 2025 Programme Committee. This article shares the NATSA 2025 opening forum, “Otherwise Relations between Taiwan and Southeast Asia.” Adopting an “otherwise,” the forum challenges nationalistic views by centring Taiwan’s ongoing entanglements with Indigenous solidarity, migration, gender economics, human rights, and more, urging a new approach to Taiwan Studies.
Written by Manoj Kumar Panigrahi. This article begins with Philippine President Marcos Jr.’s recent visit to India. It highlights the new bilateral agreements, investment, and his remarks on Taiwan that provoked Chinese and Taiwanese responses. The author then provides a critical examination of the India-China and India-Taiwan relationships, particularly situating Taiwan at the center of evolving regional security and economic dynamics.
Written by Jess Marinaccio. This article examines Taiwan’s fisheries during martial law, with a focus on the 1976 Jinnan No. 1 incident in New Zealand. Illegal fishing both strained Pacific diplomacy and yet revealed how fishing boats enabled individual mobility. For workers like Zhang Songhuo on Jinnan No. 1, fisheries were not solely a means of livelihood, but also a possible escape route from the authoritarian ROC during the martial law period.
Written by Naomi Sím. The article introduces “rosettation,” a method of translating between minoritised languages like Tâigí and Gaelic via dominant ones. The Tâigael project explores linguistic solidarity, reader responses, and political tensions. Rosettation emerges as both a pragmatic strategy and a literary experiment, which enables new forms of intercultural dialogue despite inherent compromises.
Written by Lisa LacDonald. This article reflects on orchids in Scotland and Taiwan as metaphors for translation. While Scottish orchids evoke resilience, Taiwanese orchids embody richness and locality. The author highlights the difficulty of conveying cultural nuance across languages, framing translation as both interpretation and resistance, balancing fidelity, accessibility, and the preservation of linguistic diversity.
Written by Elissa Hunter-Dorans. This article reflects on how maternal and grandmaternal figures embody the preservation of Taiwanese and Gaelic. Through Tâigael, the author explores oral traditions, familial intimacy, and the “mother tongue” as both metaphor and surrogate caregiver, showing how literature sustains endangered languages and fosters cross-cultural kinship.
Written by Hannah Stevens and Will Buckingham. The article introduces Tâigael: Stories from Taiwanese & Gaelic, a translation project linking two minoritised languages through English and Mandarin as bridges. Writers reflect on linguistic solidarity, maternal legacies in “mother tongues,” risks of reinforcing hierarchies, and ecological fidelity in translation. Together, their essays highlight translation’s generative, resistant, and collaborative potential.
Written by Eloise Phillips. This article examines the 2025 Taiwan–Guam cultural exchange, led by Taiwan’s National Museum of Prehistory, which wove song, canoe building, and shared practices into island diplomacy. Through workshops, performances, and informal encounters, the program connected Austronesian communities across the Pacific, highlighting resilience, mutual reclamation, and living traditions of cultural practice, language, and art.
Written by Neeraj Mehra. This article discusses Taiwan’s untapped potential in India’s booming outbound tourism market, highlighting shared cultural ties, natural attractions, and democratic values. The author proposes that easing visas, improving air connectivity, boosting targeted marketing, and fostering educational exchanges may expand tourism, strengthen Taiwan’s soft power, and advance its New Southbound Policy goals.
Taiwan Insight 