Taiwan Insight

Working Across Differences: NATSA and 30 Years of Community-Building

23 October 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Ting-Sian Liu and Yi-Ting Chung. This article reflects on the NATSA 2025 Closing Forum, honoring 30 years of community-building. Invited scholars offered critical feedback on NATSA’s history, its shift from politics toward decoloniality, queerness, and care, and the conference’s “otherwise” theme. The discussion emphasised activist-driven scholarship and collective labour as acts of care and solidarity for the future of Taiwan Studies.

NATSA 2025 Conference Note: A Cross-Cultural Literary Dialogue Against the Mainstream

22 October 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Yun-Pu Tu. This article reflects on the “Otherwise Literature: Against the Mainstream” panel, a collaboration between NATSA and the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, which explored how storytelling bridges cultures and challenges dominant narratives. Featuring writers and translators including Shawna Yang Ryan, Lya Shaffer Osborn, and Yung-ta Chien, the event highlighted the power of words and storytelling to connect communities and imagine Taiwan otherwise.

Island Research and Archipelagic Thinking in and beyond Taiwan

21 October 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by Yi-Yu Lai. This article examines how a roundtable at the 2025 NATSA rethinks Taiwan through the lens of Island Studies. Drawing on case studies from Kinmen, Matsu, Penghu, Palau, Lanyu, and Batanes, it explores how islandness complicates questions of identity, scale, and connection within and beyond Taiwan.

NATSA 2025 Opening Forum: Otherwise Relations between Taiwan and Southeast Asia

20 October 2025 Chee-Hann Wu

Written by the NATSA 2025 Programme Committee. This article shares the NATSA 2025 opening forum, “Otherwise Relations between Taiwan and Southeast Asia.” Adopting an “otherwise,” the forum challenges nationalistic views by centring Taiwan’s ongoing entanglements with Indigenous solidarity, migration, gender economics, human rights, and more, urging a new approach to Taiwan Studies.

The House of Chiang: Between Reverence and Reckoning

17 October 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Meng Kit Tang. This article explores Taiwan’s debate over the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall — a site that embodies both national survival and authoritarian trauma. It calls for transforming the hall into a civic classroom that contextualises Chiang’s achievements and abuses, draws lessons from Germany and South Africa, and contrasts Taiwan’s openness with Beijing’s censorship.

The Unresolved Housing Problem in Taiwan

15 October 2025 Yu-Chen

Written by Yi-Ling Chen. This article traces Taiwan’s housing transformation, arguing that the state’s role remains central, and that its interventions have facilitated commodification, speculation, and inequality in Taiwan’s housing sector. It calls for restoring housing’s use value and reimagining it as a basic necessity.

Why Taiwan’s Family Businesses Still Rule and Why It Matters

13 October 2025 Yu-Chen

Written by Zong-Rong Lee. As part of the Taiwan Insight–IJTS special issue on the Topical Section “Transitions and Challenges in Taiwan’s Economy and Society,” this article presents Zong-Rong Lee’s study on Taiwan’s enduring family capitalism. It traces how political patronage, kinship networks, and market reforms sustained family dominance, raising concerns about competition and long-term adaptability.

U.S.-China Competition and the Rise and Fall of Taiwanese Firms

10 October 2025 Yu-Chen

Written by Thung-Hong Lin and Chun-Yin Lee. This article discusses the impact of China’s tightening control and U.S.–China trade tensions on Taiwanese firms. The authors find that traditional electronics firms have suffered revenue and profit declines, while high-end semiconductor companies have shown counter-cyclical growth. Ongoing tariff negotiations leave future prospects uncertain.

Introduction to The Topical Section on ‘Transitions and Challenges in Taiwan’s Economy and Society’

8 October 2025 Yu-Chen

Written by Zong-Rong Lee and Thung-Hong Lin. This article introduces the Taiwan Insight–IJTS special issue on the Topical Section “Transitions and Challenges in Taiwan’s Economy and Society.” Initiated as an open invitation to scholars worldwide, the Topical Section reflects on Taiwan’s economic transformation, convening debate on structural shifts, their consequences, and the pressing challenges shaping Taiwan’s future.

When the Waters Rose, So Did Taiwan’s People

7 October 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Meng Kit Tang. This article reflects on Taiwan’s remarkable civic response to the 2025 Hualien floods, where thousands of volunteers, faith groups, and ordinary citizens mobilised overnight. The essay ultimately suggests that Taiwan’s story offers lessons not just for its own politics, but also for neighbours and rivals alike: that true strength and attraction emerge not from control, but from authenticity.

Powering the Silicon Island: Can Taiwan Keep the Lights On for AI?

6 October 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Ashley Cheng. This article argues that Taiwan’s current energy trajectory is incompatible with its high-tech goals. Unless Taiwan vigorously accelerates its clean energy transition, it risks energy bottlenecks that could impact not just its climate crisis but also threaten both its national security and economic competitiveness.

Decolonial Art as a Form of Truth Telling and Indigenous Resistance

3 October 2025 Adrian Chiu

Written by Choesang Scholer. Despite the pressures of external forces on Indigenous land and domain, Indigenous community members utilise art as a medium for political protest to amplify their concerns when their government fails to do so. This article explores the way in which identity-building expression appears through various forms of art.

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