Wikipedia in Taiwan: Digital Sovereignty, Cultural Practice, and the Knowledge Mosaic of a Diverse Society

30-second overview:
Wikipedia in Taiwan is more than a reference tool — it is a battleground for digital sovereignty, cultural preservation, and educational innovation. From successfully hosting the third Wikimania conference in 2007 to accumulating tens of thousands of cultural heritage images through the Wiki Loves Monuments photography competition, Taiwan's community actively partners with GLAM institutions such as the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and the National Museum of Taiwan History to digitize local knowledge. Beyond that, the official launches of Wikipedia editions in five Indigenous languages — including Sakizaya — mark a collective assertion of Taiwan's Austronesian languages in the digital world.

"This is a marathon, from libraries and museums to remote Indigenous villages, to defend Taiwan's right to define itself."

In 2004, when Taiwan's first Wikimedians began gathering online, they perhaps didn't anticipate that this "anyone can edit" knowledge base would become a frequent subject of Taiwan's legal debates. But beyond the courtrooms, many Taiwanese Wikimedians have been using photography, teaching, and archival work to engrave the island's image into the global knowledge network, stroke by stroke.

From "MozTW Space" to Wikimedia Taiwan

In 2006, local Wikimedia users in Taiwan began the process of forming a legal entity. On February 11, 2007, the "Wikimedia Association of the Republic of China" (WMTW, now commonly known as Wikimedia Taiwan) was formally established in Taipei. This was not merely the birth of an organization — it was a milestone in Taiwan's knowledge community formally connecting with the international world.

Jamie Lin, one of the core members at the time, later recalled that early gatherings were often held at "MozTW Space" in Taipei — a space full of tech spirit and openness where volunteers discussed how to write articles and promote "the liberation of knowledge."

📝 Curator's note: In the digital age, whoever controls the power to define controls history.

2007: Wikimania in Taipei — Taiwan's Community Moment in the International Spotlight

Just months after the association's founding, Taiwan successfully hosted the third Wikimania conference in August of that year. ¹ The conference was held at the Taipei International Youth Activity Center (Jiandan), drawing over 1,100 participants from approximately 98 countries around the world. ^{2 3}

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attended in person. The event not only raised Taiwan's profile in the international open-source community but also established Taiwanese Wikimedians as a core contributing force to the Chinese-language Wikipedia.

Cultural Practice: Wiki Loves Monuments and GLAM Partnerships

Beyond text editing, Taiwan's community has also been actively involved in the digital preservation of visual materials and documents.

• Wiki Loves Monuments: Since 2013, Taiwan has participated in this world's largest photography competition. Through volunteers' lenses, Taiwan's national monuments and historic buildings have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses. In 2020, a Taiwanese participant's entry stood out among 7,700 submissions, winning 15th place globally. ⁴
• GLAM Collaboration (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums): Wikimedia Taiwan has actively promoted the Open GLAM concept, partnering with institutions such as the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and the National Museum of Taiwan History. Through "scanning marathons" and workshops, precious literary manuscripts and historical artifacts have been transformed into digital articles, bringing knowledge locked in museum vaults to global audiences. ⁵

Digital Revitalization: Indigenous Language Wikipedia Projects in Taiwan

Another outstanding contribution of Taiwan's Wiki community to cultural preservation is its long-term collaboration with National Chengchi University's Center for Indigenous Studies (NCCU ALCD), which has brought endangered Austronesian languages into the digital world: ⁶

1. Sakizaya (撒奇萊雅語): Officially launched in November 2019, the first Indigenous language Wikipedia to go live in Taiwan.
2. Tayal (泰雅語) & Seediq (賽德克語): Launched in March 2021.
3. Amis (阿美語) & Paiwan (排灣語): Launched in October 2021.

These projects faced challenges including non-standardized writing systems and a digital divide among elderly tribal members, but their successful launches symbolize the collective digital voice of Taiwan's Austronesian languages on an international platform. ⁷

📝 Curator's note: Indigenous language Wikis are not just translation — they are a form of digital empowerment, about who has the right to write in their own language.

Educational Innovation: The Wikipedia Education Program (WEP)

To improve article quality and cultivate fact-checking skills, Taiwan's community has promoted the Wikipedia Education Program.

• University partnerships: Collaborating with multiple universities including NTU, NCCU, Tamkang, and NCUT, courses have been developed that include writing Wikipedia as part of the formal curriculum. Under the guidance of professors and Wiki volunteers, students learn how to gather reliable sources and write articles from a neutral point of view.
• Learning outcomes: Research shows that students participating in the Education Program demonstrate significant improvements in information retrieval, logical reasoning, and digital citizenship. This not only deepens Taiwan-related articles but also cultivates a generation of young people with the ability to detect disinformation. ⁸

Legal Battleground: When Article Editing Becomes a Court Verdict

Wikipedia's openness has repeatedly triggered legal disputes in Taiwan. The Taiwanese legal system's emphasis on "reputation rights" and "electoral fairness" means that editing activities often carry legal risks.

• The Tsai Eng-meng Case — Responsibility and Practice: Tsai Eng-meng objected to article content describing him as acquiring media "to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party." The Taipei District Court's first-instance ruling on August 29, 2024 found in favor of the association, on the grounds that the association is not the operator, and that Tsai himself had attempted to edit the relevant content but was reverted by the global community under its rules due to promotional editing and vandalism. ⁹ The case is still under appeal. ¹⁰
• The Tsai Yi-yu Case and the Screenshot Spread Effect: In 2019, a man from Chiayi named Weng Junchze changed the spouse field in Legislator Tsai Yi-yu's Wikipedia article to read "Card Goddess" Yang Huiru. The first instance sentenced him to 6 months in prison. Although Weng deleted the edit himself within 40 minutes, a screenshot had already spread widely. The Tainan High Court on appeal acquitted him in 2021, primarily because it was difficult to establish that he had the subjective intent to cause someone to "lose an election." ^{11 12}

2021: The Foundation's "Global Action" and the Schism of Qiuwen Baike

In September 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation took unprecedented blocking action against the "Wikimedia Community User Group China" (WMC) for alleged harassment, intimidation, and manipulation of administrator elections. ¹⁴ This action sparked intense controversy within the Chinese-language community, with some mainland Chinese editors calling it a "great purge." Former WMC members subsequently founded "Qiuwen Baike" (求聞百科), claiming to offer "an objective perspective based on Chinese values" — marking a structural split in the Chinese-language knowledge community between "neutral point of view" and "national values." ¹⁵

Looking Ahead to 2025: Information Resilience in the AI Era

As 2025 arrived, Wikipedia faced the erosion of AI-generated content (AI slop). Wikimedia Taiwan, in its annual outlook, emphasized that the future priority is "continuation and implementation" — using AI to assist translation while insisting on "human-in-the-loop" as the final line of defense. ¹⁶

The history of Wikipedia in Taiwan is a journey from being defined by others to defining oneself. What these volunteers protect is not just a webpage, but Taiwan's authentic existence in the digital world — one that will not be erased by legal intimidation, political infiltration, or the dying of languages.

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