James Lin

Excited to read @heguisen.bsky.social’s new book Ghost Nation!

Call for papers: "New Directions in Taiwan History" workshop to be held at University of Washington, Seattle, on February 26-27, 2026. Deadline to apply is October 10, 2025. Please share widely! For application instructions: jsis.washington.edu/taiwan/works...

Excited to see the translation of Kaori Lai 賴香吟's Portraits in White 白色畫像 published in English by Columbia UP! Translated by Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt, commissioned by Ian Rowen, and a historical introduction written by yours truly. cup.columbia.edu/book/portrai...

This is a super fun wordle variant

Reminder: I’ll be talking about my new book this Thursday!

You can grab my book on sale for 40% off! www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the...

My first book review! I am grateful to @angusbylsma.bsky.social for closely engaging with my book. The critique is fair, and it's exciting to see how the book is sparking conversations.

I'll be giving a talk on my book in Seattle and online (hybrid) on May 15 at 3:30pm (Pacific). Please join in person or online! jsis.washington.edu/taiwan/2025/...

Counting Rats, Showing Progress Join us for a webinar by Dr Leo Chu that traces rat eradication's biopolitics in postwar Taiwan

I'll talk about rodent control in postwar #Taiwan tomorrow

www.eventbrite.com.au/e/counting-r...

Economist says China’s overseas assets at risk as trade war hits boiling point Yu Yongding, a former central bank adviser, says Beijing’s foreign holdings could become another battleground in the US-China trade war.

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SCMP: "Yu has been outspoken in his advocacy for the reduction of China’s US Treasury bill holdings and has advised Beijing to stay alert for any attempts to use the country’s foreign assets against it."

sc.mp/8tmps?utm_so... via @scmpnews

How Trump Offers This African Territory Its ‘Biggest Opportunity’ After years of building relationships with congressional Republicans and conservative think tanks, officials in Somaliland believe President Trump will grant their ultimate wish: statehood.

Taiwan has a prominent role in this story on Somaliland www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/w...

Congratulations @jamestwotree.bsky.social! Looking forward to reading this very important book!

Thanks Venus!

Thank you, Tadashi!

Thanks yet again!

Thanks for ordering it, Juliet! I didn't know copies shipped already! This is the first time I've seen it "in the wild"!

Thank you!

How Taiwanese Vegetables Became the Envy of the World Author James Lin on the rural history that defined a generation of Taiwanese.

I forgot to mention, if you're curious about how this book came to be, I wrote about that personal history in the UC Press blog: www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/h...

Finally, I owe thanks to everyone who made this book possible, from friends and family who supported me on the way, to mentors and peer reviewers who spent hours reading this from dissertation to manuscript, and to UC Press and my editor for their patience and financial support!

Read the rest of this history in the open access link, or purchase a physical copy with the discount code UCPSAVE30 for 30% off. If you are at an academic institution, please also consider requesting your library purchase a copy of the book. /8

Taiwan’s development successes were plastered in media headlines, evidence of how modern and successful Taiwan was. This extended to bolster the bona fides of the authoritarian Kuomintang government that ruled Taiwan, providing an economic and modern legitimization of their martial law. /7

Behind the facade of uplift was the co-opting of global decolonization and scientific modernity to further Taiwan’s political aims. The risk of expulsion from the United Nations and international system led Taiwan's state planners to agricultural science and rural reform as a technical panacea. /6

Taiwanese agricultural technicians extolled the virtues of their approach to crop improvement, land reform, and farmers associations. In contrast with development from wealthy nations, Taiwanese proclaimed their methods were more suitable to subtropical, poor, and postcolonial societies. /5

In the 1950s, the narrative takes a turn to the global, which I argue became a crucial stage for Taiwanese development. Taiwan began to send development missions to all corners of the world: Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, beginning with Vietnam. /4

For example, Taiwan's planners represented land reform as an act of social benevolence and technical mastery. Deploying the language of contracts and financial instruments, the state showed how it transformed peasants into petty capitalists and landlords into stockholding industrial capitalists. /3

In the Global Vanguard is a history of modern Taiwan, told through the lens of agrarian development. It begins with how development arose as an purposeful state project with origins in rural social movements, missionaries, and later, state-led land reform. (Table of contents attached here) /2

In the Global Vanguard by James Lin - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

Open access publication! My book is now available open access for everyone to read and download free on the @ucpress.bsky.social website: www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the... A brief thread about the book /1

Political scientists seeing parallels between China and the U.S. American political scientists and historians who study other countries - especially China - say they see more parallels today between their area of study and their own country.

American political scientists and historians who study China say they see more parallels today between their area of study - Chinese politics - and their own country, the United States - than ever before.
www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...

Check out my book at the @ucpress.bsky.social booth at @asianstudies.org in Columbus!

Book cover

Physical copies are arriving! If you are attending AAS next week, you can find my book at the @ucpress.bsky.social exhibit booth! www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the...