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Welcome to the October issue of the ITSC Newsletter! With the fall semester starting nearly two months ago and the weather beginning to cool off, we are deep into the academic year, and at NTNU, we are ramping up for another strong year of Taiwan Studies conferences and lectures.
This edition’s featured Taiwan Studies center is the Center for Taiwan Studies at UC Santa Barbara, helmed by the highly distinguished Professor Howard Chiang. In our interview with him, he explains how the Center has grown through cooperation with other scholars and universities, and his plans for the future.
Professor Chiang will also be participating in the “Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines” lecture series in December, Professor Shih Shu-mei’s follow-on to her successful series held this summer. This issue also covers one of those lectures, by Academia Sinica Professor Liu Wen, which discussed how the fields of Asian American studies and Taiwan Studies can draw on one another.
Finally, inspired by the vision set out by Professor Lâu Sêng-hiân in his introduction to
TaiGiddy in our last issue, one of our copyeditors decided to turn his first few weeks of learning into an experience report, which we hope will invite others to begin their journey of learning Taiwanese (Tâi-gí).
We hope you find this edition of our newsletter interesting and informative, and we look forward to providing you with another at the end of the year!
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In a previous podcast episode, professor Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak talked about the difference between natural disasters and natural phenomena, the key point being whether humans are adversely impacted or not. Sadly, on September 23rd Taiwan experienced a tragic flood in Guangfu Township that cost at least 19 lives.
In the midst of the tragedy, the response from people all over the country was nothing short of incredible. Tens of thousands of volunteers descended on the area in order to help with rescue and recovery efforts, with extra trains having to be put on to accommodate all those who wanted to go. While "political polarization" often makes headlines, this was a spirit of generosity and camaraderie that shone through from the Taiwanese people. Whether assistance from relevant places (both private and governmental) can continue to assist those who have been affected will be key, but it was a stark reminder that Taiwan isn't as divided as it can seem from the headlines! |
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Editorial team - Josh Edbrooke
Greg Laslo
Chang Feng-en |
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Prof. Howard Chiang Introduces the Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB)
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One of the most long-serving and prestigious Taiwan Studies Centers in the world is located in California at UCSB. Director of the Center, Professor Howard Chiang spoke with our editor about the past achievements, the present initiatives and the future direction of this institution!
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Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, Howard Chiang holds the Lai Ho & Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies and is Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies, UCSB. |
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1. The CTS at UCSB is one of the longest-standing Taiwan Studies institutions in the world. What kind of advantages does such long history give when it comes to the running of the center?
Since its founding in 2003 by Kuo-Ch’ing Tu, the Center for Taiwan Studies at UC Santa Barbara has provided an important platform for the study of Taiwan in California. To the best of my knowledge, it is the longest running center or program of its kind in North America. Given its long history of engagement with both the local and international communities, one of the most obvious advantages is the established networks within which it has been nested. For instance, when I assumed Center Directorship, it was relatively easy for me to build and expand on the longstanding collegial relationship between the Center and various Taiwanese government agencies such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.
Another advantage of coming from such a long history lies in the realm of teaching. Because Tu offered regular courses in Taiwan studies before his retirement, and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies even appointed temporary instructors to extend the teaching of Taiwan-content courses before my appointment, I did not have to persuade the school of the importance of developing and offering courses in Taiwan studies. I could simply draw on that long tradition.
2. Are there particular areas of Taiwan Studies that you find attract significant interest among students at UCSB?
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Learning Tâi-gí with TaiGiddy: An Experience Report
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By Gregory Laslo
Although I arrived in Taiwan with the initial goal of learning Mandarin, I was always more interested in the culture of Taiwan itself. But it took me too long to realize that while Mandarin will allow you to live and get around in Taiwan, Tâi-gí (often called Taiwanese) is perhaps more necessary to understand the history of Taiwan and its history as experienced, felt, spoken, and written by its inhabitants.
However, I always felt the bar to entrance was high, due to the difficulty of tonal languages. Mandarin is hard enough for me! For students without experience in a tonal language like Mandarin, and those not in Taiwan to absorb the linguistic environment, the bar is much higher.
This was why TaiGiddy, a gamified Tâi-gí learning platform spearheaded by Professors Lâu Sêng-hiân (劉承賢), Chuang Yu-ying (莊育穎), and Khóo Huī-Lû (許慧如) at NTNU, appealed to me.
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Academia Sinica Prof. Liu Wen Discusses the Intersection of Taiwan Studies and Asian American Studies
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This summer, the International Taiwan Studies Center at NTNU was pleased to co-organize a series of lectures on “Theory and Methodology of Taiwan Studies” (台灣研究理論與方法) with Yushan Scholar Professor Shih Shu-mei (史書美) of UCLA.
Liu Wen (劉文), an associate professor at the Academia Sinica Institute of Ethnology, was the fourth speaker of the lecture series. On the afternoon of July 15th, she delivered a lecture titled “亞裔美國研究能為台灣研究做社麼？重新思考種族、國族與區域 (What Can Asian American Studies Bring to Taiwan Studies? Reconsidering Race, Nationality, and Region)”. To assist the two fields in better meshing together, Professor Liu presented a parallel comparison of the histories of both Asian American studies and Taiwan Studies across these three concepts.
Professor Liu began with a brief history of “Asian American” as an ethnicity, and gave an overview of the main approaches for research into Asian American identity, including her own focus of Asian settler colonialism, which examines Asian (American) participation in settler colonialist projects.
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Upcoming Lecture Series: Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines |
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This December, leading Taiwan theorist, Yushan Scholar, and UCLA Irving & Jean Stone Professor Shih Shu-mei will be hosting her next series of lectures on Taiwan theory at NTNU. The series is titled “Taiwan and Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines,” and will be held from early to mid-December.
Alvin Wong (黃家軒), an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, will discuss queer Sinophone studies in Hong Kong; Howard Chiang (姜學豪), Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies at UC Santa Barbara and holder of the Lai Ho and Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies, will tackle the same subject from the Taiwan perspective. |
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Chen Ruey-lin (陳瑞麟), a distinguished professor from National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Philosophy, will delve into foreign literary thought and how it interacts with Taiwan’s subjectivity. Nishi Masahiko (西成彦), a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, will host two talks on world literature.
See details and sign up here.
This event is sponsored by the Yushan Program of the Ministry of Education.
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26th Annual International Conference of the Cultural Studies Association to be Held at NTNU
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Taiwan's Cultural Studies Association (台灣文化研究學會) is organizing “Transculturation: The 26th Annual International Conference of the Cultural Studies Association,” in collaboration with the NTNU International Taiwan Studies Center. The event will be held at NTNU’s Gongguan Campus on March 7-8, 2026.
The 2026 Cultural Studies Annual Conference will bring researchers from diverse fields to explore how culture continuously moves through and across language and sound, image and text, history and technology, ethnicity and media, and islands and worlds. The twin pillars of the Conference are the concepts of “trans,” referring to not just crossing but also the energy of dynamic changes, transitions, and regeneration, and “culturalization,” which emphasizes that the concepts and practices which make up culture are means and processes, not ends or goals in and of themselves, which are continually reshaped, recoded, hybridized, and intervened in.
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Call for Papers: Keywords of Taiwan Theory III Workshop |
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For over a decade now, scholars of Taiwan have been ambitiously working to build a theoretical foundation for Taiwan Studies. The “keyword approach,” exemplified in
Keywords of Taiwan Theory (2019) and
Keywords of Taiwan Theory II (2025) involves creating keywords which represent important concepts in Taiwan history, culture, or theory, in order to create a network of experiences, perspectives, positions, and theories. Following the success of the first two volumes, the Keywords of Taiwan Promotional Committee is opening a call for papers for the third volume and workshop in this endeavor. They recommend the following two approaches for submitted papers. |
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First, continuity: creating new keywords and building dialogue and connections with previous ones; and second, review and revitalization: reinterpreting and revitalizing older generations of concepts by examining the creation and debates around keywords in their historical contexts. Academics with an interest in the above two approaches are invited to submit drafts to this workshop, to be held September 19-20 next year.
Draft submissions: An 800-1000 character abstract (somewhat flexible)
Paper submission deadline: March 1, 2026
Review results will be announced on April 30, 2026.
Draft length: 5000-8000 characters
Workshop dates: September 19-20, 2026
Submission mailbox: taiwantheory@gmail.com
Organizer: NTNU International Taiwan Studies Center
For more information, click here.
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NTNU Sinophone and Taiwan Studies Book Series Open for Submissions
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Ecotourism
Environment, Health and Education
By Fang Wei-ta, Arba'at Hassan, Max Horng
Ecotourism, which is concerned not only with economic growth but also the education of tourists and the wellbeing of the local environment and people, is a rapidly growing market, and a vital approach to tackling the global environmental crisis. The goal of this book is to promote ecotourism as a sustainable solution to the dilemma of ecological protection and the development of the tourism industry, particularly from Sinophone and Taiwanese perspectives. All those involved in ecotourism entrepreneurship, research, management, and planning, should find this a useful reference volume. More info here. |
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The “Sinophone and Taiwan Studies,” centered on Taiwan Studies-related humanities and social science research, is open for new book submissions. Edited by Professor Shih Shu-mei (史書美) of UCLA and Professor Nikky Lin (林巾力) of NTNU, this book series aims to break Sinophone and Taiwan Studies out of old limiting frameworks and methodologies.
Browse the series and download the book proposal form here. |
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NTNU International Taiwan Studies Center Podcast
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Recent Episodes
The Complexities of Taiwan's Foreign Assistance Programs in the 1950's - 1970's, with Professor James Lin
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Recent Publications in the Taiwan Studies Field
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A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader
Edited by Ian Rowen, Chang Ti-han, and Darryl Sterk
Columbia University Press
Supported by the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, this diverse anthology of translated short stories and book chapters gathers works from writers at the forefront of Taiwan’s ecological and environmental literature, including Sakinu Ahronglong, Syaman Rapongan, Wu Ming-yi, and Chiou Charng-ting. It will be released in December 2025.
More info here.
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Taiwan's Semiconductor Miracle: From Periphery to Core
by Tian-Jy Chen and Chin-Tay Shih
Routledge Research on Taiwan
Covering one of the most dramatic episodes in modern technology history, this book outlines the ascent of a resource-impoverished and technology-disadvantaged country to a leading position in the world’s most complex industry. The book focuses on three major factors that contributed to this success: the adoption of the foundry model, the formation of human resources, and the role of the state.
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Chinese Asianism, 1894 - 1945
Author: Craig A. Smith
This book examines Chinese intellectual discussions of East Asian solidarity, analyzing them in connection with Chinese nationalism and Sino–Japanese relations. It considers a wide range of writings that show the depth of the pre-war discourse on Asianism and the influence it had on the rise of nationalism in China. The Mandarin language version was released in 2025.
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Encyclopedia of Taiwan Studies Online
This Encyclopedia introduces the multifaceted aspects of Taiwan’s past and present in almost 600 entries, authored by more than 300 worldwide scholars who are experts in the archaeology, history, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, political science, international relations, Indigenous studies, literature, gender studies, media studies, cinema and documentary, music, and art of Taiwan. The Encyclopedia can thus be seen as a portal to the multifaceted world of Taiwan, with its vibrant culture, important developments, and radical transformations.
This version is the second online release of the Encyclopedia, containing 10 of its 15 sections. Release of the third and last installment is planned at the end of 2025, followed by the print version in 2026.
The Encyclopedia is edited by Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (Editor-in-Chief), Lung-Chih Chang, Kuei-Fen Chiu, Isabelle Cockel, Nancy Guy, Dafydd Fell, Ming-Sho Ho, Anru Lee, Lih-Yun Lin, Hsin-Tien Liao, Scott Simon, Ming-Yeh Rawnsley, Cheng-Hwa Tsang, Robert Weller, Alan Hao Yang, and Elizabeth Zeitoun (Associate Editors). More info here. |
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Upcoming Taiwan Studies Events
From Around the World
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SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies:
Dr Bi-yu Chang's Retirement Lecture
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The SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies will celebrate Dr Bi-yu Chang’s retirement this November with her lecture, Constructing Taiwan: Place, Power, and Identity Politics. The lecture will reflect on her decades of pioneering work on Taiwan’s cultural politics, identity, and nation-building.
12 November 2025
2:00–4:00 pm (UK time) – Lecture (Hybrid)
4:00–5:00 pm – In-person reception
DLT, SOAS Main Building & Online
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The Green, the Blue, the Grey: Hybrid Threats and Taiwan's Security
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Marc Lanteigne, UiT, Professor of Political Science at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, examines the hybrid threat that Taiwan is facing from China and will examine how Taiwan fits into the larger study of grey zone operations.
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2025, 12-2pm.
Venue: Room LG 106, Hallward Library, University Park, Nottingham.
Register here. |
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EATS Research and Publication Grant 2026
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The EATS Research and Publication Grant for the year 2026 is now open for applications. In a total of €3,000 and minimum €300 up to €800 maximum per application, the grant supports a wide range of activities relevant to Taiwan Studies, as proposed by the applicant, involving research or publication completed before 31August 2026.
The deadline for applications is 30 Nov 2025.
More info here.
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Protean Assemblages:
The Literary Invention of Han Taiwanese Settlerhood in the Postwar Pacific
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This talk by Yu-ting Huang, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University, traces the literary emergence of Han Taiwanese settler subjects since the 1970s, arguing that Asian settlerhood—as both a political identity and a subject position—is a relatively recent discursive invention in the postwar Pacific.
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2025, 2-3:30pm (Pacific Time).
Venue: Bunche Hall 10383, UCLA.
More info here.
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19th Taiwan Documentary Film Festival, Tubingen, Germany
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This event will present the work of guest director Huang Shu-mei.
Date: December 5, 2pm - 8pm and December 6, 10:30am - 5pm, 2025.
Location: Kino Atelier, Vor dem Haagtor 1.
Tickets: On entry
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Useful Content for Teaching and Research
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Ghost Nation: Taiwan's Story of Survival Over 400 Years of Colonization
Veteran journalist Chris Horton discusses his latest book,
Ghost Nation, which shares a history of Taiwan as told through countless interviews with those who helped democratize Taiwan and are preserving a history that pre-dates 400 years of colonization.
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Open Access Articles from the
International Journal of Taiwan Studies |
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There are currently 44 open access articles from the
International Journal of Taiwan Studies. For a complete list and links to download, click here. |
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Taiwan Lit and the Global Sinosphere
Taiwan Lit, launched in the summer of 2020, is an online scholarly journal focusing on studies of Taiwan literature and culture. It is published by the Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
We invite submissions in either English or Chinese. Please see the descriptions of each individual section for details.
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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).
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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