The post-war East Asian developmental countries emphasize growth and economy, and use economic cooperation to avoid political and historical differences (Woo-Cummings, 1999), especially national sentiments. Among them, the island is a special geographical scale, and the interaction between the local society and the land, the sea, and other islands is full of emotional feelings. Emotions that used to be ignored, considered analytically secondary, can become political mobilizations in island societies. For example, in the process of democratization in the discussion of rebellion and becoming a second-class citizen, the people’s struggle for democratization is full of emotional mobilization to get rid of the fate of outlying islands as the front line of war. But gradually, this sentiment was strategically misappropriated and became a means and method for local governments after the lifting of martial law to demand more power from the state.
Through the insights of an anthropological analysis of emotions (Rosaldo, 1980; 1984; Lutz, 1988; Abu-Lughod, 1990), we can know that emotions constitute an important cornerstone of society, and in post-colonial countries, in addition to political and economic power structures, emotions strengthen the development of an East Asian island society.
In Matsu—islands that are part of Taiwan and close to the coast of China, emotions in this outlying island area, which was once the front line of the war, have become a tool for the local government to win policy preferences from the central government and justify itself after democratization. By combining the power of the former fishermen and from the perspective of "Matsu people support Matsu people", an affective community has been developed.
