Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation

Dr. Hsin-I Sydney Yueh (Northeastern State University)

This session will be held using Microsoft Teams .

Abstract

(Winner of the Outstanding Book Award for the International and Intercultural Communication Division, National Communication Association, 2018)

Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan contains observations about Taiwan’s “culture of cute.” The massive imports of popular cultural products in the late 1980s, mainly from Japan, fermented the kawaii (Japanese cute) type of femininity in regulating everyday communication and the perception of gender roles in Taiwan. The popularity of the baby-like female image is concurrent with the simmering debate on Taiwanese identity. The Mandarin term “ sajiao ” (playing cute) thus becomes a keyword to understand identity politics in Taiwan. While this book focuses on how Taiwanese people persuade others using this childish and feminine method in their everyday communication, readers will find that the use of cute elements in political campaigns has formed a unique election culture in Taiwan. This book provides a bottom-up, alternative angle in analyzing Taiwanese national identity formation and its role in political, economic, and cultural flows in East Asia.

Speaker Biography

Hsin-I Sydney Yueh (PhD, University of Iowa, 2012) is Associate Professor at Northeastern State University. Her research and teaching are centered in intercultural communication, gender and language, and East Asian popular culture. In addition to her award-winning book, her other publications can be found in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Critical Studies of Media Communication, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, and so forth. She serves Board of Directors (2020-2023) for North American Taiwan Studies Association. She is also a Taiwan Fellow, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan in 2021.

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: ml156@soas.ac.uk