Junbin Tan
I am an anthropologist interested in the study of war, conflict, and polarization; aging, generational memory, and intergenerational care; and ritual, religion, and healing transformations. My research centres on Kinmen—Taiwan’s Cold War battlefront with China that has become these polities’ most-used border crossing—and the Taiwan Strait, which I place in dialogue with other wartime and postwar societies. My interest in cross-Strait relations is sustained by my identity as a third-generation emigrant from Kinmen, with relatives and friends in both Kinmen and Taiwan who hold vastly different political views. I look forward to conversations on these topics!
My current book project, “Interlocutions: Navigating the Taiwan Strait and Other Polarized Worlds” examines how the generation of Kinmen people that came of age when the Cold War ended (1980s-90s) navigate rising polarization and returning conflict at the Taiwan Strait. Many Kinmen people consider themselves “Chinese” with ideas of “China” that occupy a fluid territory between geography (Kinmen is two miles from Fujian), the term “Republic of China” (ROC) by which Taiwan was commonly known, and cultural Chinese-ness. Trade and travel opened up between Kinmen and Fujian since 2001, and Kinmen started importing water from Fujian in 2018. Many Kinmen people also left for Taipei in their youth—my interlocutors in the 1980s-90s—where many of them now live. These conditions put Kinmen people in an awkward position given the rising Taiwan Independence movement in Taiwan, China’s forceful claims to Taiwan in recent years, and polarization within Taiwan itself. Through sustained interaction with Kinmen’s post-militarization generation; involvements in their temple activities, protests, and pilgrimages; and discussions of cross-Strait political and economic developments, I examine how Kinmen people respond to polarization and rising conflict through their everyday practices.
My second project, “Political Afterlives: Kinmen’s War Dead and the Rethinking of Battlefield History and Contemporary Taiwan Strait Relations” concerns the Battle of Guningtou in Kinmen in 1949, one of the Chinese Civil War’s last battles that led to the present-day divide between China and Taiwan. I attend to changing relations with and interpretations of the Guningtou war dead—human remains and ghosts, both nationalist (ROC) and communist (PRC)—, through which I examine people’s re-perceptions of the Guningtou Battle, the Chinese Civil War, and current Taiwan Strait relations. By showing how received historical ideas are rethought and political divides unsettled, I intervene in today’s political climate where China’s claims-making and Taiwan’s assertions of sovereignty both demand certainty and contribute to polarization. This project is funded by the British Academy.
I completed my PhD at the Department of Anthropology, Princeton University where I was also a postdoctoral researcher in 2025. I did my BA and MA in Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. I have taught at the National University of Singapore, Princeton and Oxford.
Junbin Tan
I am an anthropologist interested in the study of war, conflict, and polarization; aging, generational memory, and intergenerational care; and ritual, religion, and healing transformations. My research centres on Kinmen—Taiwan’s Cold War battlefront with China that has become these polities’ most-used border crossing—and the Taiwan Strait, which I place in dialogue with other wartime and postwar societies. My interest in cross-Strait relations is sustained by my identity as a third-generation emigrant from Kinmen, with relatives and friends in both Kinmen and Taiwan who hold vastly different political views. I look forward to conversations on these topics!
My current book project, “Interlocutions: Navigating the Taiwan Strait and Other Polarized Worlds” examines how the generation of Kinmen people that came of age when the Cold War ended (1980s-90s) navigate rising polarization and returning conflict at the Taiwan Strait. Many Kinmen people consider themselves “Chinese” with ideas of “China” that occupy a fluid territory between geography (Kinmen is two miles from Fujian), the term “Republic of China” (ROC) by which Taiwan was commonly known, and cultural Chinese-ness. Trade and travel opened up between Kinmen and Fujian since 2001, and Kinmen started importing water from Fujian in 2018. Many Kinmen people also left for Taipei in their youth—my interlocutors in the 1980s-90s—where many of them now live. These conditions put Kinmen people in an awkward position given the rising Taiwan Independence movement in Taiwan, China’s forceful claims to Taiwan in recent years, and polarization within Taiwan itself. Through sustained interaction with Kinmen’s post-militarization generation; involvements in their temple activities, protests, and pilgrimages; and discussions of cross-Strait political and economic developments, I examine how Kinmen people respond to polarization and rising conflict through their everyday practices.
My second project, “Political Afterlives: Kinmen’s War Dead and the Rethinking of Battlefield History and Contemporary Taiwan Strait Relations” concerns the Battle of Guningtou in Kinmen in 1949, one of the Chinese Civil War’s last battles that led to the present-day divide between China and Taiwan. I attend to changing relations with and interpretations of the Guningtou war dead—human remains and ghosts, both nationalist (ROC) and communist (PRC)—, through which I examine people’s re-perceptions of the Guningtou Battle, the Chinese Civil War, and current Taiwan Strait relations. By showing how received historical ideas are rethought and political divides unsettled, I intervene in today’s political climate where China’s claims-making and Taiwan’s assertions of sovereignty both demand certainty and contribute to polarization. This project is funded by the British Academy.
I completed my PhD at the Department of Anthropology, Princeton University where I was also a postdoctoral researcher in 2025. I did my BA and MA in Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. I have taught at the National University of Singapore, Princeton and Oxford.