Key Research

Documents and Research

有關台灣研究的一些省思 - Some Reflections on Taiwan Studies

Speech Delivered by Professor Ping-Hui Liao

To view a copy of the speech, please click on the link here.

General Summary: This speech delivers on the incredibly nuanced perspective that Professor Ping-Hui Liao has for the development of Taiwan Studies in a multi-cultural international world. The professor speaks on the current representation of Taiwan Studies in the global stage, and highlights the importance of what kind of identity the area of Taiwan Studies in the academic world, and what implications may be drawn from the misidentification of this area of study.

Taiwan Studies: The American Connections

Abstract Delivered by Professor Ping-Hui Liao

Taiwan Studies: The American Connections
Ping-hui Liao, Chuan Lyu Endowed Chair Professor, UC San Diego

Abstract: My talk draws on four historical instances to illustrate the ways in which we may better appreciate Taiwanese literary texts by considering their American connections. The first case in mind is a new translation of Yang Chien-he's 1942 short story, "The Season When Flowers Bloom," by Yang's daughter and granddaughter. Not only did Yang herself reinterpret her early work while living in the US, but she carried on conversations with her daughter and granddaughter to offer new insights on her fiction by rehistoricizing Japanese Taiwan and the cold war island under the KMT regime. A recent work by Wendy Cheng, Island X, is my next example, to reveal how Taiwanese American students and public intellectuals have contributed to the democratization processes back home. Wu Ming-yi's Land of Little Rain shows how a writer can be inspired by work of Mary Austin, an American ecologist, in his further pursuit of a planetary intelligence. Wu is certainly not alone here. A number of Taiwanese writers also explore the possibilities of using google translator, synthetic biology, robotics, and so on to establish American and indeed global connections. Tsai Po-chang's Solo Date, for one, was just being screened in Tainan.

Some of my full papers discussed here are posted on our website - https://taiwan.ucsd.edu/research

花開時節 - The Season Where Flowers Bloom

Author: Yang Ch’ien-ho

Translations: Chimei Lin Chen

Foreword: Professor Ping-Hui Liao

Book Summary:

"The Season When Flowers Bloom" is a short story that depicts the struggles of Hui-ing, a woman during the colonial ages of Taiwan, where she contemplates alongside two of her classmates the meaning of femininity in the modern age, the social pressures of traditional marriage and values, and ultimately how to counteract against such pressures when faced with an uncertain path and the expectation of an unwanted future constricted by others. This classical masterpiece stands as a major pillar in Japanese and Taiwanese literature; a revolutionary piece of feminist literature that actively questions the degree of freedom women have over themselves and their livelihoods whilst commemorating all walks of life that womanhood may take them, whether that be the entrance of business-like professionalism or that of traditional motherhood. The highlights of rampant issues like societal expectations of male marriage interdependency and the mentality of traditional "feminine" skills (singing, cooking, etc.) as the only way of female empowerment are elements of the story that helped pushed the boundaries of the literature genre, and subsequently, what it means to be a woman in society.

Link to Professor Ping-Hui Liao's Foreword of the book here. 

戰前與戰後台灣文學上的楊千鶴 (1921-2011)：兼談楊千鶴〈花開時節〉的我見（附〈花開時節〉新英譯文）Yang Chian-Ho (1921-2011) and her Unique Place in Pre and Postwar Taiwan Literature: A Review of Yang Chian-Ho's "The Season When Flowers Bloom" (with a New English Translation of "The Season When Flowers Bloom")

Author: Chihmei Lin Chen 林智美 

Editor's Note: This special feature brings together a critical essay on Yang Chian-ho (楊千鶴) by her daughter, Dr. Chihmei Lin Chen, accompanied by a list of Yang’s publications, a biographical introduction authored by Chen, and an English translation of Yang’s short story, “The Season When Flowers Bloom,” by Chen and her daughter, Katherine Chen Jenkins. As Yang’s daughter, translator, and critic with an academic background in psychology, Chen offers an analytical yet intimate engagement with Yang’s literary legacy. Her essay situates Yang’s writings within broader literary and cultural frameworks while reflecting on their intergenerational significance in Taiwan. A portion of the essay addresses the publication, translation, and reception of “The Season When Flowers Bloom” and offers a critical analysis of the text and its interpretive complexities . In light of this intervention, this feature includes Chen and Jenkins’s revised translation of the short story, originally published in The Season When Flowers Bloom: In Four Languages (Taipei: Vanguard, 2023). The original format of the short story has been altered for web display.

Reference: Taiwan Lit and the Global Sinosphere, Fall 2025, Volume 6, Issue 2
Link to the full article here.