Vanishing natives and Taiwan’s settler-colonial unconsciousness

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article approaches Taiwan history through the optic of settler-colonial studies, a comparative scholarly field that has consolidated in recent years [see Wolfe, Patrick. (1999). Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology. London: Cassell; Elkins, Caroline, and Pedersen Susan (eds.). (2005). Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies. London: Routledge; Pateman, Carole. (2007). “The Settler Contract.” In Contract and Domination, edited by Carole Pateman and Charles W. Mills, 35–78. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press; Belich, James. (2009). Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-World, 1783–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Banivanua-Mar, Tracey, and Penelope Edmonds (eds.). (2010). Making Settler Colonial Space. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan; Veracini, Lorenzo. (2010). Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan; Bateman, Fiona, and Lionel Pilkington (eds.). (2011). Studies in Settler Colonialism: Politics, Identity and Culture. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.] The article focuses on uncovering the multiple layers of Taiwan’s settler-colonial past lying beneath dominant historical narratives. It is important to note that processes of profound historiographical transformation are already underway and that our intervention aims to contribute to a revision that is already happening. What we offer is a transnational framework and its language.