This paper investigates the historical changes of Kinmen economy from the perspective of the dialectics between fixity and mobility with special focus on the development of Kaoliang liquor-related economies in Kinmen.
Traditionally, Kinmen had been d...
This paper investigates the historical changes of Kinmen economy from the perspective of the dialectics between fixity and mobility with special focus on the development of Kaoliang liquor-related economies in Kinmen.
Traditionally, Kinmen had been deeply connected to the economies of flow, which have been established in southern China and southeast Asia on the basis of formal and informal networks of overseas Chinese migrants. Since 1949, however, Kinmen had suffered from economic hardship because it had been disconnected from the economies of flow due to the geo-political tensions between China and Taiwan. Kinmen Kaoliang liquor was born on the basis of local efforts to overcome the economic hardship when Kinmen was isolated and not fully incorporated to the national economy of Taiwan in the late 1950s. Kinmen Kaoliang liquor became nationally famous in Taiwan as the Taiwanese soldiers, who served in Kinmen, returned to their home with bottles of Kinmen Kaoliang after their military service. With the nationalization of Kinmen Kaoliang liquor, the Kinmen economy became fully incorporated into the Taiwanese national economy. As the China-Taiwan relationship has been greatly improved since the 1990s, the economies of flow have been revitalized in Kinmen. The revitalization of the economies of flow would provide new windows of opportunites to Kinmen, but at the same time, it can provide new challenges as the tensions between the economies of flow and the particular placeness and territoriality of Kinmen have been growing in recent years.