“TAIWAN’S ALLY TUVALU TO SOON BECOME A WATER WORLD”: LANGUAGE, PLACE, AND TAIWAN’S POPULAR DISCOURSE ON TUVALU

Authors

Jess Marinaccio, Independent Researcher

Abstract

Carol Farbotko has argued that the “islands of Tuvalu, largely absent from Eurocentric imaginings of the Pacific region, have become meaningful spaces in cosmopolitan discourses only as they disappear” (Farbotko 2010, Wishful Sinking: Disappearing Islands, Climate Refugees and Cosmopolitan Experimentation; Asia Pacific Viewpoint 51 (1): 47–60). Similarly, although Tuvalu is more present in Taiwan because it is one of Taiwan’s few diplomatic allies, Tuvalu has also become more significant in Taiwanese discourse with increased coverage of climate change. However, whereas in the West, Tuvalu and climate change are mainly linked to (often self-serving) environmentalist narratives, in Taiwan, Tuvalu and climate change are tied instead to anxiety concerning Taiwan’s contested sovereignty. In this article, I outline how Taiwan’s diplomatic ethnocentrism and its media’s fixation on climate change have filtered into popular discourse that connects Tuvalu to Taiwan’s sovereignty concerns. I also consider how examining Taiwan’s popular discourse on Tuvalu further engages themes of language/translation and love of place critical to the field of Pacific Studies.

Recommended Citation

Marinaccio, Jess (2020) "“TAIWAN’S ALLY TUVALU TO SOON BECOME A WATER WORLD”: LANGUAGE, PLACE, AND TAIWAN’S POPULAR DISCOURSE ON TUVALU," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 43: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol43/iss2/3