Education – Taiwan Insight

Obituary for J. Bruce Jacobs, Emeritus Professor of Asian Languages and Studies, Monash University, Melbourne

2 December 2019 Editor

Written by Jens Damm. Bruce belonged to the almost lost generation of professors who were able to be promoted without having to write long books early in their careers. Instead he was able to write books later in his lifetime, summarising his collected experience and wisdom. His two books which I recommend are The Kaohsiung Incident in Taiwan and Memoirs of a Foreign Big Beard (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016) and Democratizing Taiwan (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012). He was most recently working on Taiwan’s history. I and all who knew him will miss him greatly!

The Critical Functions of Taiwanese Education Agents During the Era of Commercialisation in Global Higher Education

25 September 2019 Editor

Written by Kenneth H. Chen. My fieldwork uncovered the critical functions played by Taiwanese education agents in sending international students abroad. These education agents served as mediators of students and parents’ feelings, emotions, and relationship with others. Studies show that middle-class parents and children are calculative and anxious about seeking college education abroad.

Beijing’s Rise and Taiwan’s Decline in Africa: What Does the African University Tell Us?

14 August 2019 Editor

Written by Tobi Oshodi. China has positioned itself among many African leaders as the most strategic player on the continent; a leading development partner. As the former Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, bluntly put it: a one hour meeting with former Chinese President Hu Jintao in the executive suite of his hotel in Berlin was more useful than the G8 meeting “where African leaders were told little more than that G8 nations would respect existing commitments.”

Spoken at Home and in the Market: The Shifting Perceptions towards Southeast Asian Languages in Taiwan

13 May 2019 Editor

Written by Isabelle Cheng. The New Southbound Policy (NSP) envisaged a joint force between the government and the private sector for forging ‘strategic partnerships’ with 18 states in Southeast and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Although being global-minded and aspiring to regional leadership, the NSP also entertained its domestic audience by promising to deliver the benefits of globalisation at home. A tool for realising this goal is the government’s authorisation of public funds for teaching of Southeast Asian languages

Mindfulness in Taiwan

1 February 2019 Editor

Written by Chung-Wei Lin Mindfulness originated from the early Buddhist classics referred to as “Samyukta-Agama” and “Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta”. Mindfulness are those teachings of the Buddha that were handed to the disciples, and which Buddhists believe are the direct path to realization. Mindfulness has four steps: mindfulness of the body