The Institute for Chinese Studies presents:
"In the Global Vanguard: Taiwan and Agrarian Development, 1949-1980s"
James Lin
University of Washington
Abstract: In 1959, Taiwan dispatched its first overseas agricultural assistance mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Consisting of highly decorated agricultural scientists and young farmers recruited from rural Taiwan, the Taiwanese development teams established demonstration plots featuring selected high yielding crops and taught Vietnamese rural farmers modern methods of planting and cultivation. In the decades following, Taiwan sent development missions to over three dozen nations and all corners of the Global South. Facing possible expulsion from the international system, Taiwan turned to international development diplomacy, leveraging its success in cultivating a productive agricultural economy at home. Couched in a discourse of scientific modernity, postcolonial solidarity, and economic power, Taiwanese missions during the Cold War articulated a Taiwanese model for the world. What began as diplomatic initiatives coalesced into a sociotechnical imaginary placing Taiwan in the global vanguard of development, shaping Taiwanese identity at home and entrenching the authoritarian hold of Taiwan’s Kuomintang regime. Download the PDF flyer here.
James Lin is assistant professor of international studies and adjunct assistant professor of history at the University of Washington. His research has been published in Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review; East Asian Science, Technology and Society; and History Compass. This talk is based on his forthcoming book from University of California Press examining the history of Taiwanese agrarian development in the world during the 20th century.
