Is Taiwan a Small Island? Relational and Representational Perceptions

Abstract This article examines the popular yet contested notion that Taiwan is a ‘small island’, proposing that this notion reflects a modern representational worldview. In modern discourse, Taiwan is routinely presented as a small island, but a closer review of modern and historical sources reveals that it has been variously seen as anything between ‘tiny’ and ‘huge’ and was frequently considered a large rather than small island prior to its complete mapping and colonisation. This article suggests that the perception of Taiwan’s smallness rests on indirect cartographic-quantitative representations, while a direct, relational, and situated view produces a sense of largeness. It could thus be argued that Taiwan ‘became small’ when relational perception gave way to a modern representational worldview from the seventeenth century onwards. Rekindling a relational perspective could steer the discourse away from essentialist notions of smallness.