Accidental Border: Kinma Islands and the Making of Taiwan

Borders not only delimit state territory but also differentiate state spaces, delineating the periphery from the core. However, a remote borderland is not necessarily the periphery, rather, it can function as a core component in the making of the state. By examining the border islands of Kinmen and Matsu (or Kinma, as abbreviated here) in the Taiwan Strait, we illuminate how the state relocated itself through border measures, and how accidental border activities, in turn, reshaped the state. We contend that since the Chinese civil war abruptly delineated new borders around Kinma Islands in 1949, the dramatic changes in the daily life of the islanders not only passively reflected the geopolitical dynamics during the Cold War, but also actively engendered the (re)building of state and nation in Taiwan and (re)positioning Taiwan in the world. Studying differently scaled and territorialised daily practices as they intersect at the accidental borders, we suggest, provides a contra perspective to rediscover the making of nation/states and the framing of the Cold War.