This special issue of Taiwan Insight brings together five essays by student participants in the 2026 SOAS Taiwan Studies Summer School, showcasing the breadth of contemporary Taiwan Studies across politics, culture, gender and international relations. Together, the contributions explore how Taiwan’s identities and institutions are shaped by contested histories, social norms and changing political contexts.
I-Sheng Wang revisits Tsai Ing-wen’s gender-equality legacy, arguing that her presidency brought gender equality into Taiwan’s democratic identity and governance, while also revealing the limits of a model centred on marriage and conventional forms of queer recognition.
Phoenix Fung Lam Chan analyses Pai Hsien-yung’s Crystal Boys, showing how the novel depicts the repression of homosexuality within patriarchal families while presenting New Park as an alternative space of queer community and kinship.
Gabrielle Killick explores Yen Ai Lin and Hsia Yü’s poetry, arguing that their representations of bodies, bodily fluids and water connect feminism, embodiment and the natural world in a form of “phenomenological ecofeminism.”
Amelia Antolini examines Taoyuan Martyrs’ Shrine, questioning whether conventional notions of heritage “authenticity” can adequately capture a site whose Japanese colonial origins, KMT-era transformation and contemporary uses have produced multiple layers of meaning.
Finally, Wei-Chung Chen examines Taiwan–Czech relations, arguing that Taiwan has become a symbol through which Czech political actors negotiate anxieties about national identity, democracy and the relationship between the liberal West and the authoritarian East.
Beyond the Rainbow Symbol: Was Tsai Ing-wen’s Election a Breakthrough Moment for Gender Equality in Taiwan? Written by I-Sheng Wang