Oceanic Inter-Imperialism in Psalmanazar’s Formosa

This article approaches the oceanic locality of Taiwan through George Psalmanazar’s 1704 ethnography , An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa . Psalmanazar was a Frenchman who tricked a large number of Londoners into believing him an Indigenous Formosan. In keeping with this special i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal for early modern cultural studies Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 94 - 120
Main Author Lash, Alexander Paulsson
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Pennsylvania Press 01.03.2022
Subjects
Formosa
George Psalmanazar
Inter-imperialism
oceanic empire
Taiwan
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Summary:This article approaches the oceanic locality of Taiwan through George Psalmanazar’s 1704 ethnography , An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa . Psalmanazar was a Frenchman who tricked a large number of Londoners into believing him an Indigenous Formosan. In keeping with this special issue’s interest in situating the English imperial imagination in local oceanic spaces, this article shows how Psalmanazar presented Taiwan as subject to imperial domination by a variety of maritime powers, both Asian and European. Drawing on Laura Doyle’s recent theoretical formulation of inter-imperiality, the article argues that Psalmanazar’s view of Taiwan as subject to other empires could itself inspire the imperial imagination in England. The article concludes by pointing out that the project of unpacking these imperial histories has gained increasing urgency through Taiwan’s precarious position in the rapidly developing inter-imperial rivalry between China and the United States .
ISSN:1531-0485
1553-3786
1553-3786
DOI:10.1353/jem.2022.a910853