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At this event, we are pleased to host a special lecture by Dr Lars Laamann on Tainan’s 400-year history, exploring its political, economic, and cultural significance in Taiwan and the wider East Asian region. 

This talk will highlight Tainan’s evolution as a strategic hub, a thriving maritime centre, and a cultural heartland, offering fresh insights into its enduring legacy and relevance today.

The city of Tainan celebrated its fourth centenary last year, amidst regional tensions but also in a climate of unprecedented prosperity and openess. The present lecture is intended to shed light on the significance of the city as a symbol of Taiwan's importance in eastern Asia. 

Politically, Tainan represents the gestation of a centre of gravity within the island, but also as an important crossroads for contending imperial forces. Economically, the coastal region around Tainan became an entrepôt for commerce between destinations ranging from Java to Kyũshũ, and from Luçon to all ports in eastern China. 

Culturally, the city epitomises the most important features of Chinese civilisation, both at the level of Confucian elite culture and as far as Buddhist and Daoist popular beliefs are concerned. The repercussions of epoch-making changes since its foundation subjected Tainan to sudden crises, which the city always managed to emerge from in transformed shape. This phenomenon has given the city its reputation as a constantly reincarnating "Phoenix City". At 400 years a remarkably young city in the East Asian context, Tainan has retained its vibrancy until the present day – which this presentation also aims to illustrate.