First Round of Early Career Scholars Workshop on Taiwan Studies: Reflections of the Organisers 

Written by Raian Hossain & Ping-An Wei. This article offers a reflection on the motivations behind organising the first Early Career Scholars Workshop on Taiwan Studies, the key achievements of the event, and the broader vision of establishing an Early Career Scholars Network under the Taiwan Research Hub. The organisers highlight how the workshop created opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange, professional development, and long-term community building among emerging scholars in the field.

Invisible Nation Documentary is Making Taiwan More Visible

Written by Shawna Yang Ryan and Gerrit van der Wees. During the past weeks, a new documentary about Taiwan, Invisible Nation, has been making the rounds at various film festivals in the United States and Europe, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam on November 14-18, 2023.  Invisible Nation is the work of Vanessa Hope, who built up the film around the everyday life of President Tsai Ing-wen, in the process creating a fascinating picture of how the low-key President is ably leading Taiwan towards a better future.

Indigenous Taiwan through Critical Lenses: Comparative and Place-Based Perspectives 

Written by Yi-Yang Cheng, Ssu-Chieh Jessica Fan and Susan Hou. Centring on Indigeneity in Taiwan, the interdisciplinary roundtable “Indigenous Taiwan through Critical Lenses: Comparative and Place-Based Perspectives” conceptualized Taiwan as a grounding point for multiple geographical perspectives. Instead of positioning Taiwan as a boundary object between the East and the West, it prompted a fresh envisioning and repositioning of Taiwan as a liminal space of unbounded and interconnected possibilities. Put differently, the roundtable discussions explored alternative ways of positioning Taiwan in/and the world, including perspectives which might have previously been marginalized or eluded consideration.

Beyond Books: Taiwanese Stories in the World

Written by Ssu-Chieh Jessica Fan and Cheng-Ting Wu. In recent years, Taiwan literature has experienced a surge in visibility and recognition within the global cultural community. To explore the border-crossing potential of Taiwanese stories, the planning team of the NATSA 2023 conference organized a special event, creating a lively platform for discussing the circulation and reception of Taiwanese fiction and non-fiction works in the international book market and academia.

Taiwanese American as an Aesthetic/Academic/Activist Concern 

Organized by I-Lin Liu. Taiwanese American is not a given status but a process of becoming. For first and second-generation Taiwanese Americans, the experience of living in a foreign land and becoming a member of an ethnic minority group often creates occasions for rethinking or reconceptualizing the meanings of being Taiwanese or Taiwanese American. This article focuses on the meaning(s) of Taiwanese American identity, community building, and the future of the Taiwanese American identity.

NATSA: Repositioning Taiwan

Written by Chee-Hann Wu. The North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) is a registered nonprofit organization and the largest scholarly association dedicated to Taiwan Studies in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1994 when Taiwan Studies became a booming field of research that attracted international attention during the 1990s, a period of rapid political, economic, social, and cultural change in Taiwan. The growing academic interest in Taiwan called for a regular and interdisciplinary academic forum. To establish such a forum, the North American Taiwan Studies Association’s constitution was drafted and ratified at the first annual conference at Yale University in June 1994.

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