Have you ever imagined that were a sailor or a pirate? It would be strange if you hadn’t…

Living in Taiwan, we are surrounded by ocean, yet the seas are unfamiliar to us. Growing up, we are introduced to pirates by Hollywood movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, and the imaginary wonders of the ocean floor by The Little Mermaid; yet we seldom hear the stories and legends that were once spread about the nearby seas. As a result, while we may stand before the ocean with the crashing waves stirring up fantasies of and desire for adventure, we have no idea of what a pirate’s life was actually like.

When it comes to the ocean we should first ask ourselves where we should look at it from. To get a foothold in studying maritime culture, we should not position ourselves on the shore or islands; the first step of understanding maritime culture is to board a ship to find out about the structure and composition of ships. You may have read about Chinese junks in your history textbook, but what kind of ships were they, exactly, and why were they called junks? Why aren’t they called that in traditional Chinese documents? What were the sails of these sailing ships made of? How did the crew go to the bathroom while at sea? Researcher Weng Jia-yin asks these questions and answers them in turn with examples, his stories gradually forming an image of maritime life and culture in our minds.

Unknown（Unknown）。[Sailboat(023_PH0644)]。《Digital Archives Union Catalog catalog》。http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/5e/3e/05.html（view in 2012/08/13）。

When looking at the oceans in the present, Weng suggests first thinking about the conceptions and vocabulary of the past and today. When interpreting historical texts, we should pay attention to the reality beyond the text, and not be limited to the official records in historical accounts. “If a history is too clean, I get rid of it!” says Weng.  For example, he once read in a log that in 1699, a Belgian man was arrested by the Spanish. In captivity, he encountered Belgians, Amsterdammers, New Yorkers, and Londoners, and worked with them to seize a ship to escape from the Phillippines. Passing through Taiwan’s Su’ao, they encountered Han people who lived there and a dispute ensued. Reading this, a problem occurred to him: this description contained facts that were at odds with the story of Wu Sha that he had previously read, which stated that there were only Han living in Su’Ao and Yilan after Wu Sha (1731-1798) had the area cleared. The island of Taiwan is not large, and its different ethnic groups were not always necessarily distributed as recorded in documents. Weng draws a vivid analogy: “It’s just like on the ocean:  apart from seabirds, there are also migratory birds, vagrant birds, and stray birds drifting along, carried to different places with the ocean currents. If we can let ourselves think that freely, we may imagine a history more blue and varied than the official version.”

KUO, Hsueh-Hu（1969）。[Group of boat on Tamsui]。《Digital Archives Union Catalog catalog》。http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/60/7f/2e.html（view in 2012/08/13）

In studying the seas, one must stress openness and stability. Since the 20^th century, history has overemphasized states and state-centric thinking, forgetting that in the past people drifted and migrated across the oceans to distant lands; studies of maritime history should not be done within the framework of states, but should rather treat the Pacific and the waters of East Asia as a space facilitating contact between them. After adjust to a research attitude in which the ocean is no longer thought of as something that divides, but instead medium for contact, it will help us to learn about a greater variety of cultures with a more open mind.

Toward the end of the interview, Weng speaks of his dreams for historical research. The oceans are incomparably vast, but is there any way to preserve and connect them? When we talk about maritime history, after Lim To Khiam was gone, Koxinga passed away, and the era of the Kingdom of Tungning ended, the historical record cuts off. The winds blow and wave surge on the surface of the ocean, but could there also be a steady flow beneath the surface? After the waves have passed, the ocean remains; is it possible to find such a long, unbroken thread running through the historical materials? Weng believes this is an important issue and historical research.

Weng says that in studying maritime history, one should be like a sailor crashing through the waves of the vast sea of historical material, challenging existing views, and constantly asking questions as one crosses the ocean. During the interview, Weng referred to a song by the band Mayday, remarking “A famous Taiwanese song’s title, People Life- Ocean Wild, if the Taiwanese don’t pay attention to maritime history, it’s just a meaninglessly shouted line from a song.” The fascinating thing about the study of maritime culture is that perhaps only through boarding a ship and accumulated voyages can horizons be broadened, and maritime history and culture continue to accumulate and persist.