Pei-Yu Liao

I received my MA in Applied Linguistics and Language Pedagogy from SOAS in 2015, and was then sent by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan to work as a Mandarin teacher in Moscow.

I have taught Taiwanese Mandarin (including phonetics, reading and writing) at Moscow State Linguistic University and Moscow State Pedagogical University.

During my time working in Moscow, I organised Taiwanese cultural activities for the departement and assisted the Taipei Representative Office in Moscow in promoting Taiwan's Mandarin textbooks, as well as organising Taiwan related events. I have also conducted academic research and participated in linguistics conferences related to teaching Chinese as a foreign language while teaching in Moscow.

In 2019, I finished my work in Moscow and returned to Taiwan. I started my PhD in 2020 and worked as a Mandarin teacher for Australian diplomats in Taiwan. In 2022, I returned to London for my dissertation writing. Based on my background in teaching Mandarin, I would like to analyse, through the perspective of linguistics, how Taiwanese Mandarin responds to the process of the evolution of Taiwanese identities in generations, as well as the related modern social issues of Taiwan's colonial history and democratisation process. 

Conference papers 

1. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2023. “Language, Identity and Ideology: Self and Others in the Sunflower Movement Discourse”. North American Taiwan Studies Association 28th Annual Conference “Resistance and Resilience: Repositioning Taiwan”. University of California, Irvine, USA.
2. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2023. “Language, Identity and Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sunflower Student Movement”. The 20th Annual Conference of European Association of Taiwan Studies “Taiwan Studies in Twenty Years: Retrospect, Prospect”. SOAS University of London, UK.
3. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2021. “Language, Identity and Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sunflower Student Movement” Centre of Taiwan Studies Event. SOAS University of London, UK.
4. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2019. “Motivation of CFL learners in Russia.” International conference “Language in a Polyethnic state: development, planning and prospect.” Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia.
5. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2019. “The Impact of Image Schema on Colour Interpretation.” Round Table “Russia and countries of East Asia: interaction in education”. Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia.
6. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2018. “How Russian Students Comprehend Lexicons of Chinese Catering Culture: In the Frame of Relevant Theory.”, International conference “Language Unity and Language Diversity in a Polyethnic State”, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
7. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2018. “Colour Interpretation in CFL Learning– A Study of Russian students.” CERA Conference 2018, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK.
8. Liao, Pei-Yu. 2017. “Motivation of Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language in Russia.” The 1st International Symposium of the European Association of Chinese Teaching, Budapest, Hungary.

Book 

1. Liao, Pei-Yu and Lin, Li-Ying. 2017. "空中說華語(Speaking Madarin in the Air)". Chinese Language Education Center, National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan. (Unpublished)  

My research aims to examine the relationship between language, identity and ideology in modern Taiwan by analysing the discourse of the Sunflower Movement. Based on the premise that the language policies of Taiwan's colonial history had deeply influenced Taiwanese identity, the Sunflower Movement is viewed as a milestone in the democraticisation process of Taiwan.

The languages in Taiwan (Taiwanese Mandarin in particular) have also become important channels for exploring the process of Taiwan's democratisation. The discourse of the Sunflower Movement reflects the younger generation's sense of belonging to Taiwanese identity, particularly those who were born after the lifting of martial law.

The Sunflower Movement's discourse also conveys the pluralistic stances and free speech of different groups in Taiwan, especially in relation to government policies. My research employs a self-constructed corpus, collecting over ten million characters of the Sunflower Movement's discourse from a variety of registers. The corpus data is used to analyse word-frequency, collocation and semantic preference of the discourse.

The findings explore the performance of modern Taiwanese identity through discourse, as well as the operation of power and ideology in the discursivity of different hierachical relationships in Taiwanese society. From micro-data analysis to macro-analysis of modern Taiwanese identity issues, my research intends to provide an indicator for the academic community of Taiwan Studies to observe the discursive characteristics of a modern social movement in Taiwan from a linguistic perspective.