Centre of Taiwan Studies

The European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS) was established at SOAS in 2004 with the objective of developing Taiwan studies not only in the UK, but also in other European countries.

By holding regular conferences, we aim to increase the interaction between European based researchers working in Taiwan studies and to raise the profile of Taiwan Studies in Europe. The EATS Conference is held at a different European country each year and has now become the largest Taiwan Studies academic event in Europe.

Conferences have been held in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Spain. EATS is now an independent legally registered association managed by an international committee. The Association has been instrumental in the rapid development of Taiwan Studies research, teaching and publication over the last decade.

For the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the European Association of Taiwan Studies
(EATS), the 2023 EATS conference comes back to its ‘birthplace’ – SOAS, University of London
– to celebrate, examine, reflect and encourage the development of Taiwan Studies as a
growing academic field.

The European Association of Taiwan Studies has been supported by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. For up to date information about the European Association of Taiwan Studies and its annual conferences from 2011, please see its new website at eats-taiwan.eu.

In the scholarship on contemporary Taiwan studies, some areas such as national identity, cross-Strait relations and democratisation have received extensive academic interest. However, one area that we feel needs greater academic attention concerns the study of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. 

Though there has been high quality research on this subject, much of the literature has been historical, and issues related to modern Taiwan have been less well covered. For this reason, SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies is currently conducting a research project funded by the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, with the aim of establishing a Taiwan indigenous teaching programme and producing an English language textbook that can inform wider audiences about Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

Contemporary Taiwan Indigenous Studies Series

A series of lectures on Taiwan's indigenous peoples have been held in 2018 and 2019. Renowned scholars from all over the world as well as brilliant research students working in this field were invited to take part in this project and give a talk on their recent research at SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies. 

These lectures engage with variety of topics related to Taiwan's indigenous peoples. All these events are free to attend and open to members of the public without prior registration. 

Handbook on Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples

A number of topics have been covered in this project: 

1. The state of indigenous academic studies in Taiwan
2. Political representation and voting behaviour of indigenous peoples
3. Indigenous media in Taiwan
4. Migration history of indigenous peoples
5. Indigenous peoples and music/arts
6. Labour issues and indigenous peoples
7. Education issues related to indigenous peoples
8. Indigenous rights social movements
9. Indigenous peoples in Taiwan’s international relations
10. Legal and constitutional issues related to Taiwan’s indigenous peoples
11. Social problems facing Taiwan’s indigenous peoples
12. Religion practices among Taiwan’s indigenous peoples
13. Local politics in indigenous areas
14. Modern literature and film
15. National, ethnic and local identities among indigenous peoples
16. The China factor
17. The internet and social media
18. Environmental issues concerning indigenous peoples

The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines was founded in 1994 as a specialist museum for the display of artefacts pertaining to the Taiwan indigenous peoples. Originally established on the basis of donations by its founder and Chairman, Safe C.F. Lin, the Museum has over the years developed into an organisation that seeks to celebrate, through research and preservation, the uniqueness of the Taiwan indigenous cultures.

On November 4 the new Taiwan Resource Centre for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) was inaugurated at the SOAS Library. This is a collaborative project between Taiwan’s National Central Library, the SOAS Library, and the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies. The cooperation agreement was signed by the SOAS Pro-Director Professor Nirmala Rao and the Director General of Taiwan’s National Central Library Dr. Tseng Shu-hsien.

The TRCCS holds an initial donation of over 800 books and DVDs published in Taiwan. These publications are closely related to the courses on the SOAS Taiwan Studies teaching programmes, particularly Taiwan’s politics and cross-Strait Relations, Society & Culture in Taiwan, modern history, Economic Development of Modern Taiwan, languages, and Taiwan film studies. In addition, the TRCCS will offer a range of databases for Taiwan and Chinese studies. The latest addition is the United Daily News database, which allows search and full text access to news reports going back to the 1950s. In the future the National Central Library will then offer an annual large scale book donation and a wide range of database access to SOAS library users. These additional databases are available via the National Central Library’s TRCCS page. The SOAS TRCCS is designed to support the study and research environment for those in Taiwan and Chinese Studies and will be particularly valuable for students’ wishing to incorporate Chinese language material into their dissertation research.

The Director of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Dafydd Fell said:

The new TRCCS represents a major boost to Taiwan Studies at SOAS. The TRCCS strengthens our teaching and research programmes. It means our students now have access to the best new publications in Chinese related to our Taiwan Studies courses. I am delighted that SOAS is the first university in Europe to open such a resource centre.

The list of books and DVDs catalogued so far at the TRCCS is available on the Library catalogue.

Understanding Taiwan Through Film and Documentaries

台灣光點‧電影放送

倫敦大學亞非學院與台灣文化部合作，自2013年11月起推出一整年有關台灣電影與紀錄片的活動，三個學期、三個主題，共計9場精彩電影放映，更有機會與導演、製片人、學者專家面對面直接交集與座談的機會。

不論是喜歡電影藝術的人，關懷臺灣過去與未來的朋友，還是純粹對社會公義、歷史面向好奇的你，都應該共同來逗鬧熱，來看看臺灣社會的現實百態、掂掂臺灣人省視自我、回顧歷史的勇氣，也用心來體會這自由氛圍下所發展出來的電影藝術是如何發光發熱。

Over the past 30 years Taiwan film has had an outstanding record of achievement at major film festivals, particularly those in Europe. To factor in this enormous triumph SOAS has offered a course on Taiwan film since 2005 – a course that has been tremendously popular with students.  The value of Taiwan’s films and documentaries goes beyond their artistic quality, for they also offer a key platform for understanding modern Taiwan. This has been the prime motivation behind this new project. Its goal: to facilitate regular screenings of Taiwanese films and documentaries. Each screening will feature a follow-up Q&A session with invited film makers, actors, or film scholars and critics.

The films will be chosen to integrate closely with existing Taiwan courses at SOAS and the regular Taiwan Studies Seminars. The films shown will reflect key themes, such as important trends in Taiwan’s history, social, economic and political change, cross-Strait and international relations, and cultural development. We already supplement our teaching with reference to clips from Taiwanese films and documentaries, but regular screenings of films and the opportunity to question and directly interact with film makers and specialists will greatly enhance students’ understanding of contemporary Taiwan.  

We also intend that these screenings will be organised in close cooperation with the Taiwan Academy in London, which will be inaugurated in the near future. Overall, it is hoped that the screenings will help raise wider awareness and understanding about modern Taiwan and its vibrant creative industries.

The project will host nine film screenings during each academic year. These will include a mix of feature films, short films, and documentaries. There will be three film showings each in term 1 (September-December) and in term 2 (January to March); in term 3 we will devote an entire day to three screenings as part of our annual Taiwan Studies Summer School. The film screenings shall be open to the general public and advertised widely on our Taiwan Studies website and through our extensive emailing lists.

The Understanding Taiwan through Film and Documentary Screening Series is supported by the Ministry of Culture’s Spotlight Taiwan Programme. Special Thanks to Dr. Samuel Yin for his generous support to the Spotlight Taiwan Programme.

Taiwan studies in Europe

• European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan at Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen
• Research Unit on Taiwanese Culture and Literature at Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
• Wiener Zentrum fuer Taiwanstudien at Vienna University
• European Association for Taiwan Studies
• Taiwan Research Center at the University of Ljubljana
• University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Chinese Studies' Taiwan Lecture Series
• French Taiwan Studies
• University of Central Lancashire, Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies
• University of Nottingham, Taiwan Studies Programme

Taiwan studies in North America

• North American Taiwan Studies Association
• Conference Group on Taiwan Studies, American Political Science Association
• Center of Taiwan Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Taiwan Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin
• Taiwan Studies Program at the University of South Carolina
• UCLA Taiwan Studies Program
• University of Washington Taiwan Studies Programme
• University of Alberta Taiwan Studies Programme

Taiwan studies in Australia

• Australasian Taiwan Studies Association
• Taiwan Studies at the Australian National University

Taiwan studies in Japan

• Japan Association for Taiwan Studies

Taiwan studies in the People’s Republic of China

• Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University

Taiwan studies in Taiwan

• Academia Sinica World Congress of Taiwan Studies
• Graduate Institute of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at National Taiwan Normal University
• Graduate Institute of Taiwan History at National Taiwan Normal University
• Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture at National Taipei University of Education
• Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature at National Taiwan University
• Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University
• Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies at National Chung-Hsing University
• The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
• The Research Center for Digital Humanities, National Taiwan University
• Changhua Christian Hospital Digital Archive

Taiwan studies publications

• Routledge Research on Taiwan Series
• Camphor Press
• Cambria Taiwan Literature Series
• Brill Taiwan Studies Series
• Springer Sinophone and Taiwan Studies