Wei-ping Lin's monograph Island Fantasia is well written and logically structured. Moreover, it is informative and persuasively argued. Its narrative analysis – guided by the three core concepts of subjectivity, identity and social imaginary – focuses on the issue of the subjectification of the Matsu people. It addresses the interaction between these three phenomena in historical and contemporary Matsu, which was a place of rootlessness and in-betweenness. This situation compelled its people to subjectify themselves through the formation of their identity, facilitated by the social imaginary.

The introductory chapter of the monograph explicates a rationale of argument and an analytical framework, which comprises the relationship between subjectification, identity and imaginary. Lin's major object of analysis is the subjectivity of the Matsu people and the change and development of this subjectivity or the process of subjectification. Subjectivity refers to a person's or group's inner perceptions, cognition, morality, emotion and agency. It sustains the identity of the person or group, and this sustenance can be achieved through imaginaries. People have intrinsic capacity for imagination, and some individuals’ imaginaries transform into certain collective imaginaries. These common imaginaries can impose significant influence on the collective's identity. For instance, Lin elucidates that national identity can be constructed by the imaginary of print capitalism. Thus, this monograph delves into imagining subjects and evaluates the active agents who initiate imaginings and how these individual imaginaries become social imaginaries.

The structure of Lin's monograph is corresponds to her analytical framework. Part one functions as both the context for the entire monograph and an explanation for the neglected and suppressed Matsu subjectivity. Chapter one introduces the status of the Matsu islands before 1949. Matsu became a fishing outpost during Kublai Khan's rule. The islands were a stateless, fragmented and temporary stopover for nearby fishermen. Chapter two explicates the modernization of Matsu and the oppression of its people's subjectivity during the Warzone Administration. The modernization promoted by the administration socially conglomerated the Matsu islands, as fishing stations, into one whole Matsu, as an anti-communist bastion. However, the all-embracing military institutions and military reformation landscape fostered a Cold War imaginary, which suppressed the subjectivity of the Matsu people. Chapter three discusses the impact of the diminished fishing economy – owing to the military strictures – on gender relations in Matsu. Engaging in the “G.I. Joe business” – supplying goods and services to soldiers – raised the female residents’ incomes and statuses. Chapter four examines the meaning and function of gambling in Matsu. Gambling was inherited from the local fishing lifestyle and became a symbol of psychological contention against the military prohibition and reign.

Part two explores how new communication technologies, particularly the internet, facilitated the transformation of individual memories and imaginaries into social and collective ones. In chapter five, the writing and publication of the stories of Tianshun Chen's childhood were discussed to demonstrate how the book and internet healed the Matsu people's psychological trauma, which was inflicted under the military reign. Chapter six discusses how Matsu Online helped to develop individual imaginaries and transform them into collective imageries.

Part three is based on the analysis of part two. It presents case studies to further demonstrate Lin's main argument. In chapter seven, as in chapter four, Lin indicates that gender relations in Matsu changed. Employing three cases, this chapter reveals that different generations of female residents of Matsu have subjectified through various paths, even though they still strived to balance motherhood and their careers. Chapter eight examines the role of religion and the construction of a community temple. It analyses the creation of a new community and identity through the building of the temple. This illustrates the materialization of a collective imaginary that originated from individual imaginaries. Chapter nine describes the invented myth, “Goddess Mazu buried in Matsu,” the statue of the goddess and the pilgrimages that started from Keelung, passed through Ningde and Fuzhou and ended in Matsu. These religious practices converted and combined individual imaginaries into a collective imaginary. Chapter ten demonstrates the influence of the promotion of and opposition to the establishment of a casino resort in Matsu on the social imaginaries of the people. The support for and antagonism against the casino reveal the divisions and negotiations of the social imaginaries of the Matsu people.

In the concluding chapter, Lin clarifies her overall argument again. She examines the imagining subjects in Matsu, using various examples to demonstrate how identity and subjectivity are constructed in people's imaginaries.

Remarkably, the in-betweenness of Matsu is a characteristic that allows the analysis and framework of this monograph to be applied to socio-political phenomena in other contexts. Although Lin conducted conventional face-to-face interviews in Matsu to collect information, her framework can be utilized in places with the attribute of in-betweenness to understand how subjectivity is obtained and developed; for example, in America between the Far East and Europe, China between the ocean and the continent, and Taiwan between the Chinese mainland and America. Furthermore, Lin's framework can be employed to trace the historical trajectory of democratization and national identity formation in Taiwan, which can be seen as the result of Taiwanese social imaginaries desiring democracy and Taiwan's independence. Thus, this monograph is not only insightful for anthropology scholars and people interested in Matsu but also useful for students of other branches of social science and area studies.