Research Projects - Taiwan Research Lecture
Background
The Taiwan Research Lecture (臺灣研究講座) Project was established by the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Taiwan to promote Taiwan Studies as an independent field of study among main-stream academics. The project was inspired by the cooperation of MoE with Waseda University in establishing a pilot Taiwan Studies program in 2003. With the success in Waseda, MoE began to sign Memorandum of Understanding with topmost universities in North America and Europe starting from 2006 and later on in 2007 crystallized as “Taiwan Research Lecture Project”, which its aim to sponsor collaboration between Taiwan local universities and overseas universities in promulgating Taiwan Studies.
In 2012, the Taiwan Research Lecture Project has been sponsoring 26 top universities in 9 countries (including United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia) to establish Taiwan Research Lecture. The Taiwan Research Lecture includes setting up a program of Taiwan Studies, inviting short-term visiting scholars for teaching Taiwan Studies related courses, financing the editing of teaching materials and postgraduate students who work on related field and purchasing Taiwan Studies literature. Together with other research undertakings like organizing displays, conferences and symposia, the Taiwan Research Lecture Project had contributed greatly in globalizing Taiwan Studies in the past decade.
Our Project
In April 2013, our Centre and the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) had jointly submitted a 1-year proposal entitled “Taiwan Angle: Literature, Film, and History” (from 1 August 2013 to 31 July 2014) to MoE applying for establishing Taiwan Research Lecture in The Chinese University of Hong Kong, aiming to explore the “soft power” of Taiwan through the 3 perspectives as stated in the title. The crisscrossed cultural background of Taiwan and its multi-cultural historical background have inspired us to explore her literature and history while Taiwan films have earned international recognition with the unconditioned, continuous dedication from film directors like Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Our proposal plans to invite Taiwanese Oscar-winning Director Ang Lee to give an outstanding lecture at CUHK and well-known cultural scholar Prof. Lee Ou-fan, Leo to hold sharing sessions on Taiwan Humanities with Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, the RIH Director, as the moderator. We also plan to invite notable scholars working on Taiwan Studies to offer courses at the Department of History and Department of Chinese Literature and Language of CUHK. A workshop or conference on Comparative Hong Kong and Taiwanese Literature will be organized to collect and consolidate further thoughts and ideas deriving from academic perspective. Prof. Chen Pingyuan of CUHK and Prof. Lee Jui-teng, Director of the Museum of Taiwan Literature are on our top priority to be the keynote speakers for this event.
