James Lin

James Lin

Historian of Taiwan and the World

Academic Publications

Nostalgia for Japanese Colonialism: Historical Memory and Postcolonialism in Contemporary Taiwan

Published in History Compass, 2022

Taiwan is unique among postcolonial societies today for a widespread social nostalgia for Japanese colonial rule. Contrasted with anti-Japanese sentiment in neighboring East Asian societies like South Korea and China, Taiwan seems to present a puzzling instance of “pro-colonial” nostalgia. This article discusses this phenomenon through reviewing recent scholarship of Japanese and Guomindang rule of Taiwan and Taiwanese postcolonialism.

Recommended citation: Lin, James. “Nostalgia for Japanese Colonialism: Historical Memory and Postcolonialism in Contemporary Taiwan.” History Compass 20, no. 11 (2022): e12751. https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12751

Martyrs of Development: Taiwanese Agrarian Development and the Republic of Vietnam, 1959–1975

Published in Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, 2020

In 1959, the Republic of China (ROC) government on Taiwan enacted its first international agrarian development mission to the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). The mission began modestly to assist primarily with crop improvement and farmers’ associations. But by the fall of the RVN in 1975, Taiwanese development constituted a global project of the authoritarian Guomindang (GMD) regime to redefine Taiwan’s place in the world.

Recommended citation: Lin, James. “Martyrs of Development: Taiwanese Agrarian Development and the Republic of Vietnam, 1959–1975.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 9, no. 1 (2020): 67–106. https://doi.org/10.1353/ach.2020.0000

Sowing Seeds and Knowledge: Agricultural Development in the US, Taiwan, and the World, 1949-1975

Published in East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 2015

This article traces the rise of agricultural development in Taiwan and its interactions with the rest of the world, emphasizing the agency and transformations of the Global South. In the 1920s, American scientists and missionaries began experimenting with development in China through local universities and villages. From then until the early 1970s, American, Chinese, and Taiwanese scientists integrated farmers associations, laboratory research, agricultural extension, and applied industrial research. Starting in the 1960s with the rise of the Cold War, Taiwanese technocrats packaged their practices of agricultural development into missions sent abroad to Southeast Asia and Africa and in new multinational research centers established in Taiwan.

Recommended citation: Lin, James. “Sowing Seeds and Knowledge: Agricultural Development in Taiwan and the World, 1925–1975.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society 9, no. 2 (June 1, 2015): 127–49. https://doi.org/10.1215/18752160-2872116