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Seminar TitleRecalibrating Austronesian Narratives through Local Implementation: Paradiplomacy, Identity Asymmetry, and Hualien County''s Transoceanic
Year115
Semester1
Meeting Start Date2026-10-23
Seminar NameRecalibrating Austronesian Narratives through Local Implementation: Paradiplomacy, Identity Asymmetry, and Hualien County''s Transoceanic
Seminar Name Other
All AuthorCheng-Hao Pao, Anna Rudakowska, Malas Takisdahuan
The Unit Of The Conference
Publisher
Meeting Name2026 American Association for China Studies annual conference
Meeting PlaceUniversity of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, USA
SummaryThis study examines how local governments recalibrate nationally framed diplomatic narratives through the implementation of paradiplomacy. Focusing on Taiwan’s Austronesian diplomacy, it argues that while the state promotes an “Austronesian” narrative grounded in academic claims about Taiwan as the origin of Austronesian peoples, this narrative encounters two structural challenges in practice. First, it is geographically narrowed, as official diplomacy is overwhelmingly concentrated on the South Pacific despite the transcontinental distribution of Austronesian peoples. Second, it is constrained by an asymmetry of identity and status: Indigenous peoples in Taiwan occupy a socioeconomically disadvantaged position domestically, yet are expected to engage externally with sovereign states or Indigenous minorities within settler-colonial systems. When this asymmetry is insufficiently addressed, the Austronesian narrative risks generating cognitive dissonance among both domestic and external audiences. Drawing on a case study of Hualien County Government’s recent transoceanic outreach, this article analyzes how local-level paradiplomacy recalibrates these limitations at the level of implementation. By connecting the symbolic geographic extremes of the Austronesian world—Madagascar, Easter Island, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Aotearoa/New Zealand—Hualien County effectively completes the spatial scope omitted by national diplomacy. The findings reveal that Hualien County’s paradiplomacy performs a significant narrative recalibration function: the local government, through more relatable Indigenous agency, softens the asymmetrical awkwardness faced by the national level when dealing with “minorities versus sovereigns,” thereby reshaping how the national Austronesian narrative is enacted and received in practice. The study argues that such calibration-oriented paradiplomacy does not contest the overall direction of national diplomacy, but modifies its practical meaning, scale, and reception. Through localized cultural practices and bottom-up Indigenous engagement, local governments can transform a regionally constrained political label into a more coherent and globally intelligible Austronesian cultural narrative. In doing so, the article highlights paradiplomacy as a critical site where national diplomatic narratives are implemented, interpreted, and recalibrated under conditions of identity asymmetry.
KeywordParadiplomacy; Austronesian Diplomacy; Strategic Narratives; Identity Asymmetry; Indigenous Politics
Use LangEnglish
Level,Other
Nature Of The Meeting國際
On-campus Seminar Location無
Seminar Time20261023~20261025
Corresponding Author
Country美國
Open Call for Papers
Publication style
Provenance
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