1. Project Title: Program for Taiwan Studies: Cultural and Academic Advancement
2. University & Responsible Unit: Center for the Study of Asia, Boston University
3. Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
4. Designated Person Responsible: Dr. Catherine Yeh
Position: Director of the Center for the Study of Asia, Boston University Area(s) of Expertise: Chinese literature
Educational Background: PhD, Harvard University
5. Project Outline:
Boston University has cooperated with the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Taiwan Studies Project for ten years from 2007 to 2016.
Based on the previous ten-year cooperation and development, Boston University enhanced awareness and understanding of the culture, history and society of Taiwan in the following four aspects:
(1) International Conference: Boston University proposes to hold two international conferences and invite related experts to participate in the conference. Those conferences are titled “The Rise of New Religions in Asia” and “Taiwan in Global Asia: The Past, the Present, and the Future.”
(2) Taiwan Forum: Boston University will continue to hold the “Taiwan Forum” during the years when a major international conference is not being held. Boston University will invite renowned specialists in different fields from Taiwan as speakers.
(3) Course Development: Boston University will develop new Taiwan-focused courses and the existing courses will greatly enhance their Taiwan content. This will include courses in East Asia cinema and archaeology /anthropology. Moreover, Taiwan content and materials will be enhanced in Chinese language courses, particularly in the courses “Chinese through Theater and Acting” and “Media Chinese.”
(4) Library Development: Based on the core collection at Asian ARC (formerly ICEAAACH), donated by renowned professor of archaeology, Kwang-chih (“K.C.”) Chang(張光直), Boston University will continue to enrich its collection by subscribing key Taiwan digital databases, including journals from Academia Sinica and Taiwan’s colleges and universities through “Sinica Sinoweb,” “Chinese Electronic Periodical Services (CEPS),” and “Chinese Electronic Theses and Dissertations Services (CETDS).”
6. Word for Project Coordinator:
We are delighted that Boston University was able to host a number of interesting and well received Taiwan-related public lectures and discussions in the “Taiwan Forum,” and that we continued to expand our academic resources including the Taiwan digital research databases. We remain very grateful to the support provided by the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan) for these programs, as well as the ongoing support and assistance of the Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston. We look forward to continuing our cooperation to bring many aspects of Taiwan’s diverse culture, history, and art to a broad New England audience.
Outcome Feature Description (Below is compiled by Education Division):
Boston University hold annually the “Taiwan Forums” which will invite renowned specialists in different fields from Taiwan and United States as speakers. The speakers may be drawn from different fields, including economics, political science, the arts, history, anthropology, and archaeology, to address important aspects of Taiwan's experience in a global context. Such forums include "How Do Regional Powers View Taiwan in Light of the Ongoing Developments in Hong Kong?” “Epistemic Machines for the Cold War: Computing Economic Planning Projects in Cold War Taiwan, 1959-1968,” "Museums and the Politics of China's Grand Cultural Vision,” “Taiwanese Buddhism and Global Parenting,” “Post-Colonial Decolonization of Community Design: Learning from Hawai’i and Taiwan,” and “Understanding Taiwan: The 2020 Election, Political Trends, and Cross-Strait Relations.”
Boston University has three courses with significant Taiwan content:
Taiwan: Politics and Transformation, China: Tradition and Transformation, a course with significant Taiwan content, and The Ethnography of China and Taiwan. Moreover, Professor Cathy Yeh proposed new Taiwan-focused course topic in East Asian Cinema: New Wave. It features Taiwan’s major filmmakers including Hou Hsia-hsien, Ts’ai Ming-liang, Ang Lee, Edward Yang, and others. The course intends to explore the new wave of Taiwan’s films and their global impact on international filmmaking. The themes explored in this course include Taiwan identity, urbanization, generation gap, and urban youth. In the field of cultivating new talent, BU student Ava Shen visited Taiwan to research “Examining Contemporary History Textbooks in Taiwan and China.” Meanwhile, Boston University continues the Digital Humanities Project, Asia at the World’s Fairs(AWF): An Online Exhibition of Cultural Exchange, which explores the presentation of Asian cultures at international expositions and fairs and the impact of these exhibitions on subsequent cultural exchange and understanding, focusing on
themes such as religion, architecture, arts and crafts, anthropology, and food. A new theme of this project is focusing on The Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule, a huge multi-site exhibition held in Taihoku Prefecture in 1935.
Boston University is continuing the four subscriptions to key Taiwan digital databases, including journals from Academia Sinica and Taiwan’s colleges and universities through Sinica Sinoweb, Chinese Electronic Periodical Services (CEPS), Chinese Electronic Theses and Dissertations Services (CETDS), and others as determined by the School in consultation with its academic colleagues in Taiwan. Through hosting forums, making curricular development, teaching and sustaining relevant resources for the Asian ARC Library promotes meaningful faculty interaction with students, as well as with the diverse audience in the greater Boston area for the understanding of the rich culture and heritage of Taiwan.