Lecture Series

The center hosts lectures series by scholars, post-Doc. The speaker will give the speech to the public about their research related to Taiwan studies.

Past Lectures

• Taiwan Literature Tour Expands Global Reach

• Date: November 11
• Time: 12:00 – 2:00 PM
• Topic: "Exorcising Ghosts: From Taiwan's Spirits to its Soul"
• Location: Ida and Cecil Green Faculty Club
• Speaker: Chen Po-Ching (Interpreted by Jason Chien)
• Born in Taichung in 1983, Chen Po-ching is a graduate of National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature. He is a recipient of many awards, including the Global Youth Chinese Literary Award, the United Daily News Literature Award, the China Times Literature Award, the Lin Rong San Literature Award, the Taiwan Literature Award, and the Liang Shih-chiu Literature Award. His works have been included in Collected Works of Young Prose Writers: Chinese-English Works from Taiwan and Selections from Emerging Authors on Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait, and has been featured in Chiu Ko's Annual Selected Prose multiple times. Unitas has honored him as Taiwan’s Most Anticipated Under-40 Novelist. His novel The Little City, published under the pen name Ye Fu-li, also won Chiu Ko’s 2 Million NTD Honorable Mention and the Silver Prize at the 3rd World Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Prize. He has also published an essay collection, Mr. Adult, the novel Scream Connection (which won the 2020 Openbook Good Reads Award for Chinese Writing), and the novella Dirty Things.
• This year, the museum is thrilled to invite celebrated Taiwanese author Chen Po-Ching to the University of California campuses in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara. Through his discussions on Taiwanese cinema and unique perspectives on storytelling, Chen hopes to foster cultural exchange with the California community.
• Taiwanese cinema in the new millennium has seen a rise in the popularity of horror films, such as The Tag-Along (紅衣小女孩), The Rope Curse (粽邪), Detention (返校), and Incantation (咒), which have captivated audiences both locally and globally. These ghost stories highlight Taiwan's unique cultural essence by drawing from rural legends and historical echoes. Horror, Chen argues, reflects Taiwan’s societal taboos and collective fears, making these films more than mere entertainment—they are cultural commentaries. He delves into the themes these films explore: from the unseen spirits of history to the haunting of societal restrictions, and ultimately, the ways in which cinema confronts Taiwan’s past and present.

• Why do Legislators Brawl? Lawmaking, Fist Fighting, and Messaging in Taiwan

• Date: Oct 24th (Thursday), 2024 at 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. PDT
• Location: Virtual (Registration link here.)
• Speaker: Dr. Nathan F. Batto, Associate Research Fellow/Professor; Political Science at Academia Sinica and Professor Ping-Hui Liao, Professor of Literacy and Critical Studies; Chuan Lyu Endowed Chair
• Join us in our collaboration with the 21st Century China Center at the Global Strategy and Policy school in UC San Diego, where two distinguished professors from different fields of study discuss the recent brawlings and fights that took place in legislation, where a new perspective of political communciation will be argued against the widely-accepted connotation of negativity and immaturity that arose from these brawls. Don't miss out on the incredibly unique perspective on the fate of Taiwanese politics!  

• Field Notes on the Taiwan Election 
  
  • January 18, 2024 (4:00 p.m. PST)
  • Virtual and In-Person (Robinson Building, Room 3202, UC San Diego)
  • Registration: Link

January 13, 2024: Taiwan’s general election. Who gains and who loses? What’s on the minds of Taiwan voters? How does the election bode for Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China, countries in the region, and the U.S.? Professor Thomas Gold from UC Berkeley and Professor Nathan Batto from Academia Sinica will address these questions and more, drawing on Gold’s just-completed election observation tour and Batto’s long-running experience in Taiwan studying the Legislative Yuan.

This public lecture is organized by the 21st Century China Center (21CCC) at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. It is co-sponsored by UC San Diego’s Center for Taiwan Studies. For more information about this and other 21CCC events, please visit china.ucsd.edu.

• The Origin, The Present, and Future Prospects of Indigenous Literature of Taiwan

• U.S.-Taiwan and Cross-Strait Relationships

• Great Power Competition and the Risk of War in the Taiwan Strait with Dr. James Lee