ABSTRACT
A stable geopolitical structure that could be characterized as common periphery of multiple centers has slowly emerged in the island peripheries of Northeast Asia since the early modern era: the borderlands between multiple empires have long experienced domination simultaneously or successively by different empires. The formation of Taiwan as a modern political subject is a process during which a colony was transformed into a nation. This process can be analysed from the perspective of both society and state. The spectacular rise of Hong Kong nationalism since 2011 is a macro-historical-sociological phenomenon that can be explained by both short-term political factors and long-term structural causes. Taiwan nationalism has been from its inception in the 1920s what Michael Hechter calls a periphery nationalism resisting the invasion of a centralizing state. The Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong was partly inspired by the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, and there are already Hong Kong student nationalists seeking alliance with their Taiwanese counterparts after the movements.
