荷治歷史來定位在世界海洋地緣政治上的台灣 : 用Arches數位工具挖掘聯合東印度公司荷語文獻

Historico-Dutch Formosa Positioning of Taiwan in the Maritime Geopolitical World: Mining Geo-referenced Entities and Events pertaining to the Dutch United East India Company with Arches Conservation Methods In the global context, the Taiwan experience warrants explanation and makes a welcome case study as a late nation. These geopolitical dynamics can be illustrated through a 17th century historiographical account, when Taiwan was at the crossroads of an encounter between East and West. This encounter brought forth documentation and scholarship in both regions and in multiple languages that are now more accessible through the digital humanities wave generating new meta-level research findings. The purpose of this research project is to track the 17th century Dutch Formosa colonial network beyond the island of Taiwan, and to document its historical position during the Dutch maritime geopolitical world. This track and trace will follow patterns of mobility and thus further illustrate the transnational routes of the Dutch United East India Company’s (VOC) personnel migration to and from other settlements. This study will propose “circuits of movement” as an explanatory model in yielding new questions by thinking comparatively about the dimensions of the empire’s workings; and incorporates the findings of the current spatial mobility database as a core unit. References to material goods illustrate circuit of movement patterns, and expands to an examination of other networks within the broader dynamics of particular imperial grids. Both are defined in terms of the VOC and Qing-Manchu empires as historically pertinent for the Taiwan context. Encoding data for the geodatabase’s circuits of movements feature documentation of navigation technology, knowledge circulation on climatology, supply chain, shipping and cargo details, infrastructure and land zoning policies that will be mined from unstructured texts, added to the interactive database and then will assist in generating the platform with historical statistics extracted from the data. The proposed project will develop multimedia that increase Dutch-Formosan visibility by providing genealogical Eurasian databases and burial studies in Southeast Asia. This information is coupled with maps and navigation tools hence making the transnational connections between the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (WIC) evident. Research methodology will draw from the word-clips method which will be used iteratively to identify new Personal Nouns (PNs) and generate candidate PNs. The Corpus Linguistics CORPRO method will be applied in searching data and setting up the framework for the queries. The intention is to identify search result patterns that correlates with “circuits of movement” in the meta-analysis. Finally, related to the overall purpose of building an integrated atlas, the interactive platform will serve to feed the volunteer geographic system that features input from public awareness of Taiwan’s past. Inspiration for the proposed project comes from different directions, but is driven by the world of virtual and interactive technology. Therefore, its functionality is addressed within the context of Taiwan history in the Asia Pacific rim and Monsoon Asia.