臺灣研究導論

This seminar is designed for international students who are interested in Taiwan studies as a field of inquiry. Instead of positing Taiwan as an self-evident political, economic, and cultural entity, this seminar begins with identifying the « problems » of and related to Taiwan—problems that shaped Taiwan as a distinct subject in the contemporary political and cultural debates: for instance, national identity, language politics, history of migration, geopolitical location, youth culture and activism, and indigeneity. In short, it posposes to study Taiwan by asking : What made Taiwan Taiwan ? Thus, rather than merely taking a top-down model of instruction to explain what Taiwan studies is, this seminar adopts a bottom-up model by asking students to collectively « construct » Taiwan in relation to the multiple worlds they inhabit. This means that students are requested not only to connect Taiwan to where they come from—what images Taiwan has, how is it reported and discussed there—but also to present or work through a series of inquiries—for instance: Is Taiwan Chinese ?; Is it more Northeast Asian than Southeast Asian?; and what does that mean to locate Taiwan in these different cultural and geopolitical registers—with whcih they may proceed with some research into the island’s history, culture, and politics, and come up with their own ideas about what is at stakes in Taiwan studies. This seminar therefore consists of three units: The first unit looks at Taiwan through the lens of migration, identity, and politics, to inform and frame our discussion about Taiwan so that we can begin to see Taiwan as a constructed problematic. The second unit looks at Taiwan through the prism of culture: baseball, bridal industry, cinema and music, some common categories in which Taiwan seeks to assert its own uniqueness. We will consider how culture becomes a critical terrain for thinking about the Taiwan problematic. After Unit 2, we’ll pause a bit, both to reflect on what we have learned so far and extend our learning to actual sites of history. We’ll take a day tour together to see some of the sites of history in Taipei and think about what we may wish people to learn about and see in Taiwan. This field trip is intended to be an experiment on how to do critical thinking in the tourism business. The third unit, though short, is critical to our seminar, because youth activism and particularly the Sunflower Movement of 2014 has come to be seen as a watershed moment, as the culmination of Taiwanese identity. We will utilize what we learned from the previous weeks to analyze the meaning of this event, and to consider what is at stake in Taiwan studies as a field of inquiry.

Students must be able to speak and write in English in an academic setting. Students are advised to have at least some basic Chinese for communication. Ability to read Chinese characters will be a plus.

Students are expected to complete all the assigned readings, participate in the discussion, and punctually submit four two-page response papers and a field observation report, in addition to completing a final project. The final project can take one of the following forms: 1) a research paper (minimum 10 double-spaced pages) on a chosen inquiry related to the concerns of the course; 2) an activist, collaborative project that applies what you learned in class to social issues, such as an artistic installment, a photo essay, or a documentary; 3) or an annotated bibliography (20 titles minimum, building toward clarifying a research topic related to this course) with explanations of its rationale (in 3-5 pages). Final project proposals (1-2 pages to clarify your idea and direction) must be submitted by May 4, 2020 for discussion and approval. The final project is due on June 15, 2020, the last meeting of the class. Students interested in option 2 can consider the theme of “doing a critical Taiwan tour,” using images and texts to show and explain the Taiwan that needs to be known or seen. Students can be creative with this. Students interested in option 3 can consider doing a preliminary survey on Taiwan studies in English publication, or choose a keyword, such as youth activism or aboriginal culture, to organize your annotated bibliography. It can be books and articles that you have read, or a list of reading (including films) that you would put together as an archive for further research.

Writing Assignments: 45% Presentation/Discussion: 25% Final Project: 30%

All assigned readings can be accessed through a shared google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SoI04oA0TAG73DDtZSB2R6vyz5wEM7ui

地點

NCTU campus or by arrangement

時間

Monday before or after class or by arrangement

聯絡方式

wchimin@hotmail.com