Editorial

A NEW DECADE

It is a pleasure for me to welcome our readers as the new editor of EATS News, with this issue that inaugurates its second decade.

The year 2017 was a significant one for our Association. The joint efforts of EATS Board members, the local organizer, Federica Passi, and our web managers, Herman Van Bellingen and Tom Zhang, contributed to the great success of our annual meeting in Venice (the largest in EATS’ history), and the efficiency of our new online registration system. We are also proud to announce one of the key events of 2018 – the long- awaited International Journal of Taiwan Studies will be launched during the 2018 EATS conference on “Sustainable Taiwan” to take place on April 4-6 at the University of Zurich.

This issue of EATS News opens with an institutional profile expressing our commitment to building bridges across continents in Taiwan Studies. Its author, Kharis Templeman, introduces the Taiwan Democracy Project at Stanford University and its activities: a lecture series, an annual conference, visits from MOFA officials and Taiwanese political leaders, as well as the internship program which supports Stanford students’ stay at various government, non-profit and media institutions in Taiwan.

Following this editorial is a presentation of the International Journal of Taiwan Studies by its Editor- in-Chief, Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley. It briefly outlines the worldwide development of Taiwan Studies which calls for such an undertaking, and brings to light the intense, long-term collaborative work that took place behind the scenes prior to the establishment of this journal. We look forward to its inaugural issue and long- term success!

We are also a platform for the promotion of young talent. This issue includes four reports from our 2017 Library Grants, awarded to: Yi-Chi Chiu, who conducted literature-related research at the Leiden University Library; Maja Korbecka, who used the resources available at the National Taiwan University Library for a study of Chang Tso-chi’s cinematic works; Elisa Tamburo, who used this opportunity for fieldwork and archive research into military villages and mainlanders in the context of urban development; Daša Okrožnik, who developed her work on cultural heritage and national identity at the SOAS library.

In their presentation of the conference on migration they hosted in September 2017 at the University of Portsmouth, Lara Momesso and Isabelle Cheng show that this symposium was not only intended as a scholarly event, but also as an opportunity for expressing engagement and furthering dialogue between researchers and activists. Chris Berry’s article reports on an initiative combining research and popularization: the Taiwanese-language film project, uncovering the hitherto neglected beginnings of regular filmmaking in Taiwan through lectures and film screenings in the UK and other European countries. Further screenings and a special issue of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas are scheduled for 2018.

Another institutional profile by Elliott Shr-tzung Shie is a perfect example for the increased institutionalization of Taiwan Studies as a discipline. It introduces the Association for Taiwan Literature established in 2016, which groups scholars from various Taiwanese universities, and the events inaugurating the beginnings of its activity. Chun-Yi Lee’s contribution on the new magazine Taiwan Insight testifies of Taiwan’s growing visibility among European publics.

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to Wafa Ghermani’s review of the book Taiwan Cinema: International Reception and Social Change, and to the notes included in this issue, reporting news of EATS members and friends (such as the Franco-Taiwanese Prize awarded to Astrid Lipinsky) or recent publications, and signaling various Taiwan-related academic and cultural events. Please do not miss these events and calls for papers, and the coming EATS conference in Zurich!

If you have anything that you wish to announce, please write to the editor of EATS News at adina.zemanek@eats-taiwan.eu. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dr Adina Zemanek is Assistant Professor, Institute of Middle and Far Eastern Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She is also an EATS Board member, 2016–2018.