Think again, mister — Taiwan isn’t actually ‘small’

Bruce Jacobs speaks to the TFCC in Taipei

Size is a state of mind, and Taiwan has long been the victim of an inability to truly acknowledge its national power, says Bruce Jacobs 

Fresh from months lecturing across Europe and North America, Taiwan hand Bruce Jacobs, professor of Asian languages and cultures at Monash University in Melbourne, argued in Taipei last week that size doesn’t matter — or to be more precise, that Taiwan isn’t, despite the popular view, “small.” As he sees it, the realization that Taiwan is in fact a “middle power” could have implications not only for how we look at Taiwan, but perhaps more importantly, for its ability to forge a path for itself.

With Typhoon Soulik homing in on Thursday, its structure more than twice the size of Taiwan proper, it was easy to think that Jacobs had perhaps lost all sense of proportion after traveling large expanses of territory in recent months. Or maybe not.

My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here. (Photo by the author)