Newsletter
Notice Board
CALLS FOR PAPERS AND OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
The 2018 EATS Library Grant
Application deadline: 20 March 2018
Grant amount: 500 Euros maximum per person, subject to the number of received applications. Recipients will travel to a library of their choice for short-term research relevant to Taiwan Studies by 31 December 2018.
Note:Only EATS members are eligible to apply. EATS Board members are excluded from application. The grant is open to Undergraduate students, Master students and PhD candidates only. In the event that no suitable application is submitted, EATS reserves the right not to award the 2018 Library Grant.
Application Guidelines: Please submit to EATS Board at info@eats-taiwan.eu (c.c. Dr Adina Zemanek at adina.zemanek@eats-taiwan.eu) a short proposal that includes the following:
Research outline (title and description of maximum 1 page of A4)
Details of the selected library that has Taiwan related material and the relevance it holds to your research (please state the location of the library and offer a brief introduction to the materials you intend to look at. For example, archival records, newspapers, digital materials, etc.).
Duration of stay (up to 2 weeks)
Budget (including travel and accommodation fees)
Please make sure that you have obtained the necessary forms and permissions to access the library. We are not responsible for this. However, we will provide you with a letter of grant acceptance for your use as evidence. The grant can only be offered in Euro. Successful applicants must use the grant by 31 December 2018.
Upon completion you will need to file a report of work done and submit all necessary travel documents to show proof of your research stay. You will need to write a publishable report to be included in EATS News. Please also acknowledge the support of EATS Library Grant in subsequent research papers and publications. Previous reports by EATS Library Grant awardees can be found in EATS News and EATS Website for reference. For most recent examples, please see this link.
The Sixth “Young Scholars Workshop” at the CCKF-ERCCT, Summer 2018
The European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan - A CCK Foundation Overseas Center at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen will host a Young Scholars workshop from 2 July to 8 July, 2018. This year’s workshop will place a particular emphasis on the subject: “Taiwan’s New South Bound policy: Building Strength and Overcoming Weakness”. However, papers on other topics related to Taiwan and cross-Strait relations are welcome.
Ph.D. students (3rd year and above) and postdocs of the social sciences working on academic projects related to Taiwan or China are invited to submit their application.
The workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to:
present their research to an international audience;
engage in exchange on topics of theory and methodology;
get to know Tübingen, the CCKF-ERCCT and the university;
Around twelve young scholars will be invited to attend. Travel expenses and accommodation will be covered by the CCKF-ERCCT. After the workshop, participants will be asked to provide a paper, which will be published online in our CCKF-ERCCT Online Paper Series.
Interested candidates may send their CV and an outline of their research project (5-6 pages) until 15 March, 2018 to: stefan.braig@uni-tuebingen.de
CCKF-ERCCT Visiting Fellow programme, Summer Term 2018
The European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan – A CCK Foundation Overseas Center (CCKF- ERCCT) at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, pursues the objective of promoting and facilitating postgraduate social science research on contemporary Taiwan and scholarly cooperation between Europe and Taiwan. To that purpose, the Centre runs a Visiting Fellows programme in cooperation with its Taiwanese partner institutions. Under this scheme, we invite Taiwanese Ph.D. or Postdoc students (R.O.C. nationality required!) each semester to join the CCKF-ERCCT for a period of one month.
The successful applicant will be granted a living stipend of 500 EUR, free accommodation, insurance provided by the CCKF-ERCCT, and a free round trip air ticket (economy class, up to € 1250).
During their stay in Tübingen, Visiting Fellows will be officially affiliated to the CCKF-ERCCT and be provided with office space. They will take part in the centre’s activities, most notably the Taiwan Colloquium, and present their on-going Ph.D. or Postdoc research to the other fellows. Working languages at the CCKF-ERCCT are English and Mandarin Chinese.
Interested applicants should submit an academic CV, an exposé of their Ph.D. or postdoc research project of no longer than 10 pages, and a letter of recommendation by a professor of the partner institution where they are enrolled. All application materials should be sent in electronic form to Stefan Braig at stefan.braig@uni-tuebingen.de
The application deadline for the summer semester 2018 (April 16 to July 28, 2018) is February 15, 2018. For more information on the CCKF-ERCCT please refer to our website or feel free to write to stefan.braig@uni-tuebingen.de
Call for Papers for a Special Issue (#55) of Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie: Politics and Representation in Sinophone Cinema after the 1980s
This special issue will investigate the relations between political context and representation of feelings in sinophone cinema since the 1980s. The 80s are a pivotal decade for “greater China”: Deng Xiaoping (in China) and Jiang Jingguo (in Taiwan) while maintaining the heritage of their predecessors, both founding figures of different versions of modern republic (Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek) struggle to stimulate a socioeconomically “liberalisation”. In the West, the 80s are stuck by the (re)discovery of the Chinese cinemas – or “sinophone” as, following Shih Shu-mei, has been described the cinema speaking Sinitic languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Minnan...).
Chinese cinemas has always been a passionate creator of stories and visions, dwelling into the intricate relationship of family and social values, political agenda and personal expressions; focusing on the period that starts from the 1980s and arriving till our days is nevertheless particularly relevant in the Chinese world because the structures of power that governed China, Taiwan and Hong Kong were going through a dramatic turn over, and new generations of film makers had to – as their political leader – negotiate between what was perceived as a rich cultural and political heritage and the necessity to evolve to meet up with the new configurations of society (democratic movement and its dramatic showdown in Tian’anmen, the end of the martial law in Taiwan, the retrocession of Hong Kong...).
This call asks to its contributors to articulate and analyze how sinophone cinema (China, Hong-Kong, Macao, Taiwan) managed to create new categories of representations and thought, how it articulated politics and emotions, how it managed to find its ways between what could be said and shown and what has to remain implicit; how each movie or director creates in a specific cultural sphere (filming stories about the past, dwelling on local repertoire, interrogating politics and society) while developing original and multiple alternatives in terms of narrative and style (from wenyi pian to avant-garde...).
This issue will specifically focus on how sinophone cinema articulates political and ideological context with representation of emotions and feelings; and how the personal trajectories of its characters depict, challenge, frame or question geopolitical macro events that shaped contemporary Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Macao societies.
Abstract (3000 signs maximum, in French or English) are to be submitted to the guest editors of Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie, Jean-Yves Heurtebise (jy.heurtebise@gmail.com) and Corrado Neri (corrado.neri@univ-lyon3.fr) before July 1, 2018 (included a short biographical note). After acceptation, contributions are expected before September 1, 2018. Texts are expected to be limited to 30,000 signs.
Call for Papers: Monumenta Taiwanica 台灣學誌
Monumenta Taiwanica is a semi-annual journal published by the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at National Taiwan Normal University in Taiwan. The journal aims to explore issues regarding Taiwan with a creative approach, in hopes to further establish theories in the field of Taiwanese Studies.
Submissions of academic papers such as RESEACH ARTICLES, THEME ARTICLES, and BOOK REVIEWS regarding Taiwan culture, languages, literature, history, communications, politics, and social change are all welcomed. The journal especially looks forward to seeing cross-disciplinary papers of the aforementioned fields.
The Journal has been a regular collection of esteemed research institutes such as UCSB in the United States, Free University of Berlin in Germany, the Czech Academy of Science, and the National Library of China; it is also circulated in over 200 college libraries and public libraries in Taiwan. We would also love to exchange publications with your organization.
Paper Submissions are welcome at all times. Digital files of the full text of the paper and the authors’ information should be sent directly to taiwancenter@ntnu.edu.tw. For guidelines for Submission and more details, please contact taiwancenter@ntnu.edu.tw.
CONFERENCES
Young Scholar’s Conference in Brno (YSC Brno): Approaches to Language, Culture and Society
“Young Scholar’s Conference in Brno” is an annual event jointly organized by the Center for Chinese Studies of Masaryk University (Czech Republic), Soochow University (Taiwan) and the Taiwanese Student Association in the Czech Republic. The aim of the event is to promote academic and cultural interaction between young scholars from the Mandarin-speaking world and Central Europe. The inaugural conference was hosted by the Center for Chinese Studies of Masaryk University on 29-30 March, 2017, at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University. The second conference will take place on 25- 26 March, 2018 (Sunday-Monday). Its theme is “Identity Formation and Modernity”, with a special focus on Mandarin-speaking regions or Central Europe.
Assoc. Prof. Lucie Olivová, MA, Ph.D., DSc. (Masaryk University), and Professor C. S. Stone Shih, Ph.D. (Soochow University) were invited as keynote speakers. Panel presentations will be related to the following themes: identity formation; interaction between language, culture and society; art, history and literature; religious and philosophical studies; social and political studies; formation of modernity. They will be delivered by students in the presenters’ second language (i.e. English in the case of students from Taiwan/China, and Mandarin for students from the Czech/Slovak Republic).
For information on the conference programme and other inquiries, please contact the Conference Secretary, Dr Wei-lun Lu 呂維倫, at wllu@phil.muni.cz
Civil Society versus the State? Emergent Trajectories of Civic Agency in East Asia in Comparative and Transnational Perspective
Conference at Zurich University, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, September 13-14-15, 2017 This conference aimed at consolidating research on recent interactions and conflicts between the states, who try to exert more influence across several fields (e.g. the environment, the labor market, freedom of expression, education) and newly emerging social movements as a counter-reaction to what is perceived by many as an “illiberal turn” on part of the authorities. By bringing together different theoretical positions from a variety of disciplines, we aimed at re-examining the relationship between civic awareness and different forms of agency, including resistance against what is perceived as authoritarian decision-making.
On September 12th, the Department of Sinology of the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies also held the opening session of the Zurich Taiwan Lecture Series with Dr Dafydd Fell as guest speaker: “Understanding Taiwan’s Political History (1945-2000) through 11 Advertisements”.
OTHER ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL EVENTS
Forthcoming Events at the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies
01/02/18 Studying and Research in Taiwan: Briefing on Scholarship and Research Funding Opportunities, and Youth Mobility Scheme; Various Speakers
28/02/18 Pragmatics in Contact: Taiwan Mandarin utterance-final particles; Speaker: Chin-hui Lin
01/03/18 Linguistic Landscapes (LL) as a target of urban language planning in Taipei and other Asian cities; Speaker: Henning Klöter
03/05/18 Book Launch: The Taiwan Voter: Political Cleavage and Electoral Decisions; T.Y. Wang
“Singing of Formosan Aborigines: In Praise of Heaven and Earth! The Beauty of Ceremonies”
University of Central Lancashire, 13-18 November 2017
Between the 13th and the 18th of November 2017, the University of Central Lancashire hosted a free event, as part of the great Northern Creative Festival, titled “Singing of Formosan Aborigines: In Praise of Heaven and Earth! The Beauty of Ceremonies”. This was the 6th exhibition in an ongoing National Taiwanese competition exploring Taiwan’s rich and various indigenous cultures in a time when passing down heritage and culture has become an increasing challenge for Taiwan’s indigenous people. This is going to be only the second time the exhibition has been shown in Europe. The exhibition hosted a number of activities, such as the launch of the book “Buried Treasures: Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Archives Held at the School of Oriental & African Studies, the University of London” by Dr Niki Alsford (UCLan), Doug McNaught's (SOAS) talk on “The revitalization of indigenous culture in Taiwan” and Siku Sawmah's (Taiwanese designer) talk on “Designing indigenous culture”. Local schools were also invited to the exhibition with the purpose to introduce British children to the culture of Taiwan and initiate an exchange with the children of an aboriginal school in Southeastern Taiwan.
Lecture Series on Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples at SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies
The SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies has started a research project funded by the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, with the aim of establishing a Taiwan indigenous teaching program and producing an English language textbook about Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. In order to achieve these two goals, a series of lectures on Taiwan’s indigenous peoples will be held in 2018 and 2019, which will engage with a wide variety of topics. The CTS also held a book launch on “Buried Treasures: Taiwan Indigenous Peoples' Archives Held at the School of Oriental & African Studies, the University of London”, introduced by book editor Dr Niki Alsford on Friday, 26 January 2018 at SOAS Khalili Lecture Theatre. For details, please refer to the CTS website or contact ch45@soas.ac.uk
AWARDS AND OTHER DISTINCTIONS
Franco-Taiwanese Prize Awarded to Vienna Center for Taiwan Studies Head.
In a special ceremony at the Institut de France in Paris on 20 November 2017, the Franco-Taiwanese Foundation awarded its 2016 Prize to Astrid Lipinsky, co-founder of the Vienna Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. Dr Lipinsky has directed and developed the Center since 2009. She shared the 2016 award with the Director of the Paris Théatre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet, who often cooperates with Taiwanese artists or organizes Taiwan programs. The annual Franco-Taiwanese award was introduced in 1996 by the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan) and the French Académie des sciences morales et publiques.
During the award ceremony the Secretary Perpetuel of the Académie, retired Professor Jean-Robert Pitte, gave a detailed explanation of the selection of the awardees. He emphasized the amount of volunteer, unpaid work concerning Taiwan done by the Vienna Center for Taiwan Studies. The prize has previously been received by older, larger and more established Taiwan centers like the one at SOAS London and ERCCT in Tuebingen, Germany. As it prepares for its tenth anniversary in 2019, the Vienna Center has now joined this prestigious group.
Further information on the award ceremony and other events organized by the Vienna Center for Taiwan Studies is available on its website.
NEWS OF EATS MEMBERS AND FRIENDS
Niki Alsford was appointed Reader in Asia Pacific Studies and Director of the International Institute of Korean Studies at the University of Central Lancashire in August 2017.
Gary Rawnsley (Aberystwyth University) and Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (SOAS) received a publication grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation in December 2017 to support the International Journal of Taiwan Studies during its launch year in 2018.
Gary Rawnsley delivered the following talks in 2017: ‘A Critique of Soft Power post- Trump and Post-Brexit’ Hong Kong Baptist University (November); ‘Journalism and civil society activism across the Taiwan Strait’, Strait Talk Symposium, Brown University (October); ‘I read the news today, oh boy!: Social media and democracy’, Asian Young Leaders for Democracy, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (August); ‘Assessing Soft Power for an Unpredictable World’, Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan (May); ‘Taiwan 2.0: Digital Public Diplomacy in the Era of "Alternative Facts"’, Graduate Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (May); ‘Reflections of a Soft Power Agnostic: China and the World’, Confucius Institute, University of Helsinki (March); ‘Taiwan 2.0: Digital Public Diplomacy in the Era of "Alternative Facts"’, SOAS Taiwan Studies programme (March); ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’, Keynote address to conference on Chinese cultural diplomacy, The Oriental Institute of The Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (February)
Chris Berry (KCL) and Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (SOAS) received a grant from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture in April 2017 to work on a project, ‘Taiwan’s Lost Commercial Cinema: Recovered and Restored’. While the funding concluded in November 2017, the organizers will continue the film screening tours in the UK and Europe in 2018 and publication of academic volumes on the subject in English (2018–2019). Further information about the project can be found online.
Chris Berry (KCL) and Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (SOAS) co-organized the 'Taiwan’s Lost Commercial Cinema'symposium at King’s College London, 7 October 2017.
Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (SOAS) co-produced (with Matthew Philips of Aberystwyth University) a podcast entitled ‘Conversations about Taiwanese History Docudrama Attabu’ to launch their Aber Outlook series in July 2017.
Dr Lara Momesso has been appointed Lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Central Lancashire.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY EATS MEMBERS
Alsford, Niki J.P. (2017). "Transitions to Modernity in Taiwan: The Spirit of 1895 and the Cession of Formosa to Japan". London: Routledge.
Alsford, Niki J.P. (2017). "Buried Treasurers: Taiwan Indigenous Peoples’ Archives Held at the School of Oriental & African Studies, the University of London". Taipei: Council of Indigenous Peoples.
Alsford, Niki J.P. (2017). Torn Between Two Worlds: Rev. Shoki Coe, Domesticity, and the Taiwanese Self-Determination Movement. In The Shaping of Christianity in China, edited by Paul Woods, 233-250. Oxford: Regnum Publishing Company.
Alsford, Niki J.P., and Bernhard Fuehrer. (2017). Carstairs Douglas (1830-1877) and his Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy (1873), Translation Studies 1 (1): 137-182.
Bieler, Andreas and Chun-Yi Lee, (2017). ‘Exploitation and Resistance: A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese Cheap Labour Electronics and High-Value Added IT Sectors’, Globalisation, 14(2): 189-202.
Cheng, Isabelle (2017). Reality or pretense? Renouncing nationality and organized hypocrisy of the sovereignty of Taiwan. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 26 (4): 435-478.
Cheng, Isabelle (2017). Report: Invisible Partner: the Immobile Husbands in the Cross-Border Marriage. Monumenta Taiwanica 16: 109-112. DOI: 10.6242/twnica.16.
Chiu Kuei-fen, Ming-Yeh Rawnsley, and Gary Rawnsley. Eds. (2017). "Taiwan Cinema: International Reception and Social Change". London: Routledge.
Heylen, Ann. (2017). "‘Mobility and Consistorial Discipline in Dutch Formosa: An Examination of Kercboeck, 1643-1649, Tayouan Consistory", in Taiwan Historical Research (台灣史研究), Vol 24, No 1, pp. 1-36.
Heylen, Ann (2017). "Island Taiwan in the Seventeenth Century: A Historiographical Overview" in Maria Cruz Berrocal and Cheng-hwa Tsang (eds) Historical Archeaology of Early Modern Colonialism in Asia-Pacific: The Asia-Pacific Region, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp.244-269.
Heylen, Ann (2016). "Taiwan in late Ming and Qing China" in Gunter Schubert (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan, London, New York: Routledge, pp.7-21.
Lee, Chun-Yi & Yin, Ming-xi (2017). "Chinese Investment in Taiwan: A Challenge or an Opportunity for Taiwan’s High-Technology Industrial Development?", Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 46(1): 37–59.
Lin, Lihyun and Chun-Yi Lee, (2017). "When Business Met Politics", China Perspectives, 2:37-47.
Momesso, L. and Cheng, I., (2017). "Migrants, families and the state: Be/coming Taiwanese in a transnational world". Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 26 (4): 405-412.
Momesso, L. and Lee, C-y. (2017). "Transnational mobility, strong states and contested sovereignty: Learning from the China–Taiwan context". Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 26 (4): 459-479.
Ohlendorf, Hardina (2017). "Building a new academic field: The institutionalisation of Taiwan Studies in Europe". International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 13 (2): 115–140.
Tseng, Y-c., (2017). "Should I stay or should I go? Migration trajectories of Chinese–Taiwanese couples in third countries." Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 26 (4): 413-435.
Rawnsley, Gary, (2017). "Soft Power Rich, Public Diplomacy Poor: An Assessment of Taiwan’s External Communications", in The China Quarterly, vol.232 (December).
Rawnsley, Gary, (2017). "Media freedom and responsibility in South Korea: The perceptions of journalists and politicians during the Roh Moo-hyun presidency", with Qian Sarah Gong, in Journalism, (available online January 2017).
Rawnsley, Gary, (2017). Green Paper on UK Soft Power Post-Brexit, commissioned by the British Council and ResPublica (July).
Rawnsley, Gary, (2017). "The Rise of New Media in East Asia", with Yiben Ma, in The Routledge Handbook of Democratisation in East Asia (London: Routledge)
Rawnsley, Ming-yeh (trans.) (2017). Made in Britain (英國製造: 國家如何維繫經濟命脈), Taipei: Li-xu, 2017. The English version is Evan Davis, Made in Britain: Why Our Economy is More Successful Than You Think(London: Abacus, 2012)
Rawnsley, Ming-Yeh (2017). "A conversation with Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-sheng", in Kuei-fen Chiu, Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley and Gary D. Rawnsley (eds), Taiwan Cinema: International Reception and Social Change, London: Routledge, 2017, pp.193–202.
Rawnsley, Ming-Yeh, (2017). "Cultural translation between “local” and “international”: The Golden Harvest Award in Taiwan", in Chris Berry and Luke Robinson (eds), Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp.57–78.
Rawnsley, Ming-Yeh. (2017). "Developing Taiwan Studies as a Sustainable and Diverse Field", Taiwan Sentinel, 22 November.
Zemanek, Adina (2017). "Taiwaneseness Revisited: Lasting Themes and New Trends in Contemporary Popular Culture"; East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 3.2: 139-152.
Zemanek, Adina (2017). "Familiar Spaces: (National) Home in Contemporary Taiwanese Tourist Souvenirs". In: China Perspectives 2017/2.