ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contestation of maritime borders and sovereignty across the South China Sea, and the attendant territorialities supporting those claims, to highlight some of the novel but often invisible borderings and orderings that mark the beginning of the twenty-first century. Ironically, the ratification of UNCLOS and its provisions affording maritime sovereignty and rights based on minor islands may have served to raise the stakes in the South China Sea and incentivize novel meanings of bordering. Tourism provides another novel means of bordering the South China Sea. Regardless of how these tangled disputes might unfold, recent developments in the South China Sea highlight several novel strategies of bordering in the early twenty-first century. The backlash against the film, a collaborative endeavor between American and Chinese studios, stemmed from a brief scene in the movie's opening minutes when the girl expressed her desire to travel across China.
