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A Word From Our Executive Director
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Welcome to the third edition of our International Taiwan Studies Center Newsletter!
This autumn semester is often an exciting one, with a new crop of students entering our institutions and new projects, events and conferences to be planning and running at the same time.
Here at NTNU, this autumn has been quite the whirlwind. We've hosted the poetry translation conference, the Taiwan philosophy and literature conference, with scholars from all over the world attending, and welcomed a new batch of students into this fabulous field!
As we approach the end of the year, 2025 promises to be another year of growth for Taiwan Studies, notably with the Fifth World Congress of Taiwan Studies to be jointly held by Academia Sinica and NTNU from May 21st - 23rd.
Excitingly, NTNU's Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature is also recruiting, so if you would like to join us at NTNU and contribute to the work here, please read on!
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Executive Director - Nikky Lin
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In the previous two editions of this newsletter, I mentioned the podcast project that our Center has begun, and I’m delighted to be able to announce that there are now three episodes available online, with a new episode being released each month.
Having the chance to converse with experts from around the world is a real privilege and something that I certainly don’t take for granted.
Personally, as a musician, I know that the creation and release of an album is the culmination of many years of experiences, stories, and flashes of inspiration, followed by hard work to turn it all into a coherent, finished work of musical art. Similarly, the release of a book for a scholar is also the culmination of many years of thought, debate, inspiration, research and hard work. Getting to that point where a coherent, finished product is readable is no easy matter. In the latest podcast episode, Prof. Scott Simon talks about the inspiration behind his book ‘Truly Human,’ which in many ways, represents his 20+ years of research in and around Taiwan, meaning that the amount of experience, observation and insight make it a definite must-read (and the podcast episode a must-listen)!
Please do write to us with any thoughts or recommendations, and also let me know if you would like to be interviewed. I'm looking forward to hosting many more great conversations!
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Conversations with the Experts
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In Conversation with
Dr Scott Simon
Prof. Scott Simon discusses what it was that inspired him to write the book 'Truly Human: Indigeneity and Indigenous Resurgence on Formosa' and why it took so many years to finish! He also fills us in on his most recent research, an ambitious project that involves multiple students and scholars and spans a significant part of the Indo-Pacific region.
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Introduction to the Taiwan Studies Program at Inalco, France
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The Taiwan Studies Program at Inalco may not have the same level of resources that more established programs and centers around the world have, but Prof. Liu Chan-yueh's innovative approach to the incorporation of Taiwan-themed collaborative events and student research has led to some incredible results. Read on for the story behind it all and gain inspiration for new ways to expand Taiwan Studies.
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Project Associate Professor, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco), France |
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How many years have you been at Inalco? |
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I first began teaching at Inalco during the 2019-2020 academic year. At first, I was primarily teaching Mandarin, but later applied to teach Taiwanese. Starting in the 2020-2021 academic year, the department voted to teach two semesters of Taiwanese to third year students. |
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What makes the Taiwan Studies Program at Inalco different from other programs in Europe? |
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There are a few things that make Inalco’s Taiwan Studies Program special:
1. In accordance with Inalco’s pedagogical and research traditions, our Taiwan Studies Program focuses on Taiwanese languages as a mediator of Taiwan’s culture. That is, we have a complete course of study for the major families of Taiwanese languages: Taiwanese Tâi-gí, Taiwanese Hakka, Austronesian Taiwanese languages, and Taiwanese Mandarin.
2. We devote a very large proportion of our class and lecture time to learning about modern Taiwanese society, in Taiwanese languages. In other words, students have a great deal of direct contact with these languages in the classroom, instead of learning them primarily through English or French.
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Report on the 'Intersections of Taiwan Philosophy, Literature, and Culture' Conference |
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Jointly organized by NTNU’s International Taiwan Studies Center and the Ministry of Education’s Yushan Scholars Project, and co-sponsored by the Higher Education SPROUT Project and the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, the international conference “Intersections of Taiwan Philosophy, Literature, and Culture,” was held on October 19th and 20th at National Taiwan Normal University, discussing the intersections of Taiwanese philosophy, literature, and culture, and opening up new horizons and possibilities for Taiwan Studies.
Author - Chang Feng-en (張逢恩)
Translator and Editor - Gregory Laslo (樓克己)
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Poetry, Translation and Publishing Series:
Thoughts and Reflections |
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Michael Schmidt’s face towered over the audience and our four panel members as he made his opening remarks remotely from the UK, pointing out the risks and rewards of poetry translation as he saw them. He brought up Robert Frost, who claimed that “poetry is what is lost in translation,” but Schmidt disagrees, saying that “poetry is what is carried across.”
Chen Yu-hong suggested that, “Translating poetry is more difficult than translating novels. Of course, you need the source text and the target language, but you also need a third language – the language of poetry… That’s why they say it’s always better to have a poet to translate poetry.”
Written by Gregory Laslo
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International Taiwan Studies Center |
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Full-Time Faculty Position in the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at NTNU.
Come and join our Fabulous Faculty!
Application Closing Date: January 17th
Position Starting Date: August 1st, 2025.
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Recent Publications in the Field of Taiwan Studies
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Taiwanese-Language Cinema: Rediscovered and Reconsidered
(eds Chris Berry, Wafa Ghermani, Corrado Neri & Ming-yeh Rawnsley, EUP, 2024)
Special Introduction by
Dr. Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley
Research Associate, SOAS University of London, UK
Taiwanese-Language Cinema: Rediscovered and Reconsidered is the first anthology in English about a long-neglected but now rediscovered cinema phenomenon.
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In 2017, Chris Berry and I applied for a grant to bring nine newly restored Taiwanese-language films—commonly known in Mandarin as
taiyupian or in Taiwanese as
Tâ
i-gí phìnn—to several British and European universities for a screening tour. The tour had a low-key start but created a snowballing effect. We not only extended the tour to mid-2019, but also coedited a special issue on ‘Taiwanese-language films’ for the
Journal of Chinese Cinemas in 2020 to showcase the most recent scholarship on the topic in English. By that time...
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Imagining Modern Poetry
Poetic Modernisms in Taiwan
Author: Nikky Lin
Sinophone and Taiwan Studies - Springer
This book offers an in-depth discussion of the evolution of modernist poetry in Taiwan, with a focus on periods preceding and following World War II, and contextualizes the movement within the broader frameworks of Western, Japanese, and Chinese modernism. Through a comparative, dialectical approach, each chapter introduces individual poets and their works to explore key modernist themes such as intellectualism, fudo, pure poetry, translinguistic practice, exile, Cold War cultural ideology, and irony. Despite its significance, Taiwan’s modern poetry has received inadequate scholarly attention within Sinophone language and literature studies; this work aims to address the gap in the literature, offering fresh perspectives and innovative methodological and theoretical frameworks for those interested in Taiwan’s modernist poetic tradition.
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The Phonetics of Taiwanese
Cambridge Elements: Phonetics
Author: Janice Fon and Hui-Lu Khoo
Taiwanese, formerly the lingua franca of Taiwan and currently the second largest language on the island, is genealogically related to Min from the Sino-Tibetan family. Throughout history, it has been influenced by many languages, but only Mandarin has exerted heavy influences on its phonological system. This Element provides an overview of the sound inventory in mainstream Taiwanese, and details its major dialectal differences. In addition, the Element introduces speech materials that could be used for studying the phonetics of Taiwanese, including datasets from both read and spontaneous speech. Based on the data, this Element provides an analysis of Taiwanese phonetics, covering phenomena in consonants, vowels, tones, syllables, and prosody. Some of the results are in line with previous studies, while others imply potential new directions in which the language might be analyzed and might evolve. The Element ends with suggestions for future research lines for the phonetics of the language.
Available as a free download until January 9th, 2025.
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Upcoming Taiwan Studies Events
From Around the World
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30th NATSA Annual Conference
June 30- July 2, 2025
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A call for papers for NATSA's 30th annual conference is open until January 15th: Click Here
Date: June 30 - July 2, 2025
Location: Stanford University
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The 5th World Congress of Taiwan Studies, jointly organised by
Academia Sinica and National Taiwan Normal University
Venue: Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Date: May 21 to May 23, 2025
Theme: “Taiwan in a Changing World: Past, Present, and Future.” |
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European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (Tübingen)
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Feb 5th
Prof. Hsia Hsiao-chuan (Taiwan Colloquium)
From ‘Social Problems’ to ‘Social Assets’: Geopolitics, Discursive Shifts in Children of Southeast Asian Marriage Migrants, and Mother-Child Dyadic Citizenship in Taiwan
Feb 7th
Prof. Hsia Hsiao-chuan (Public Lecture)
The Tug of War over Multiculturalism: a reflection on the politics of ethnicities and the dialectic process of empowering marriage migrants in Taiwan
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University of Washington: Taiwan and the World Book Series
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The series is seeking single-authored books offering new theoretical insights into Taiwan’s society and culture, its contested international position in the shadow of a rising China, and other topics that reflect its relations with the wider world.
Proposals can be submitted here
Upcoming book talks and events here
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The 22nd Annual Conference at the Palacky University Olomouc on 20 - 22 June, 2025
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Conference Theme: Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific
More Information here |
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Useful Content for Teaching and Research
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Taiwanese, Tâi-gí, Taiyu, Hokkien, Minan?
The debate on what to call the language commonly known in Taiwan as 'Taiwanese' is actually quite complex. In this episode of 'Connected,' ITSC's Professor Lâu Sêng-hiân explains the historical context, discusses the naming issue, as well as efforts at revitalisation and the language's role in identity formation. |
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IJTS: New Open Access Articles
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There are a number of articles published in the
International Journal of Taiwan Studies (
IJTS) which are open access and free to download, covering a wide range of topics.
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‘TransTaiwan: A Research Gateway to Taiwan Studies’ (TARGTS)
Dr Isabelle Cockel from the University of Portsmouth, Secretary-General of European Association of Taiwan Studies introduces "TransTaiwan: A Research Gateway to Taiwan Studies" (TARGTS).
Launching its online platform at targts.net, TARGTS now provides more than 700 annotated bibliographies of Taiwan Studies journal articles.
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No.162, Heping E. Rd. Sec. 1, Taipei City 106308, Taiwan |
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