This syllabus is derived from James Lin's Twitter thread and with some modifications.
Making Modern Taiwan: History, Politics, Society, and Culture
Fall 2020
Rev. July 13, 2020
Jackson School of International Studies
Professor James Lin
This graduate reading seminar is an interdisciplinary survey of Taiwan Studies. It aims to introduce graduate students to key themes that have defined Taiwanese history, politics, society, and culture. How has Taiwan been shaped by colonialism, geography, and peoples? How have these forces resulted in key issues today such as identity, democratisation, and cross-Strait relations? How has Taiwan imagined the world and its own place within it?
Each week we will discuss key issues in Taiwanese history, including migration, colonialism, ethnic identity, urban spaces, the Cold War, development, business, labor, and gender. Recent and classic monographs and articles from history, anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, cultural studies, and gender studies will serve as case studies and interpretive framework for major issues in contemporary and historical Taiwan.
By the end of the course students should be able to critically analyse historical events using lenses for both the local and the global to understand historical context and contingencies. Furthermore, s=this course will also seek to build professional skills used in academia and outside, and thus will provide assignments in critical responses, peer review, oral presentation, and research.
Assign weekly discussion leaders and optional readings Discuss final research prospectus papers What does it mean to study Taiwan? (No response paper for this week)
- Shih, Shu-mei, Mark Harrison, Kuei-fen Chiu, and Michael Berry. "Forum 2: Linking Taiwan studies with the world." International Journal of Taiwan Studies 1, no. 1 (2018): 209-227.
What does it mean to be colonised? How can a colonial past a affect a society’s present?
- Andrade, Tonio. How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. Columbia Univ Press, 2008.
- Introduction, Chapter 1, 6–9 (pp. 1–39, 115–207).
- Shepherd, John Robert. Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. Stanford University Press, 1993.
- Chapter 1, 6 (pp. 1–24, 137–177).
- Teng, Emma. Taiwan's Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895. Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2006.
- Introduction, Chapters 1–2 (pp. 1–80).
- Vickers, Edward. "Original Sin on the Island Paradise? Qing Taiwan’s colonial history in comparative perspective." Taiwan in Comparative Perspective 2 (2008): 65-86.
Recommended Reading:
- Andrade, Tonio. Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West. Princeton University Press, 2013.
- Shepherd, John Robert. Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600-1800. Stanford University Press, 1993.
- (Rest of book).
- Hang, Xing. _Conflict and Commerce in Maritime East Asia: The Zheng Family and the Shaping of the Modern World, c. 1620–1720 _. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
What does it mean to be “Taiwanese”? What are the commonalities, differences, and origins of different identity markers, such as race, ethnicity, language, ancestry, heritage, biology (DNA and genotypes), nation, civilisation, culture, etc.? How does identity change and how is it co-opted?
Mandatory Response Paper:
- Brown, Melissa J. Is Taiwan Chinese?: The Impact of Culture, Power, and Migration on Changing Identities. University of California Press, 2004.
- Chapter 1, 3 (pp. 1–34, 66–133).
- Ching, Leo TS. Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. University of California Press, 2001.
- Introduction, Chapter 1, 2 (pp. 1–88).
- Dawley, Evan N. Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s-1950s. Harvard University Asia Center , 2019.
- Introduction, Chapter 2 (pp. 1–26, 78–118).
Recommended Reading :
- Heylen, Ann. Japanese Models, Chinese Culture and the Dilemma of Taiwanese Language Reform. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014.
- Kleeman, Faye Yuan. Under an Imperial Sun: Japanese Colonial Literature of Taiwan and the South. University of Hawaii Press, 2003.
- Lo, Ming-cheng Miriam. Doctors Within Borders: Profession, Ethnicity, and Modernity in Colonial Taiwan. University of California Press, 2002.
- Morris, Andrew D. Colonial Project, National Game: A History of Baseball in Taiwan. University of California Press, 2011.
How have indigenous experiences differed from settler colonial experiences?
Response Paper Peer Review:
- Barclay, Paul D. Outcasts of Empire: Japan's Rule on Taiwan's “Savage Border," 1874-1945. University of California Press, 2018.
- Ching, Leo TS. Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. University of California Press, 2001.
- Chapter 4 (pp. 133–173).
Recommended Reading:
- Katz, Paul R. When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-Pa-Ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan. University of Hawai'i Press, 2005.
How do urban and built spaces reflect the social circumstances surrounding them?
- Allen, Joseph R. Taipei: City of Displacements. University of Washington Press, 2012.
- Dawley, Evan N. Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s-1950s. Harvard University Asia Center, 2019.
- Chapter 5 (pp. 205–246)
- Musgrove, Charles D. "Taking back space: The Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall and Taiwan's democratization." Twentieth-Century China 42, no. 3 (2017): 297–316.
Two-minute introduction of research projects Peer reviews
What was the relationship of the Nationalist state with Taiwan society? How might the Nationalist state-building project be “decolonisation as recolonisation”?
- Dawley, Evan N. Becoming Taiwanese: Ethnogenesis in a Colonial City, 1880s-1950s. Harvard University Asia Center, 2019.
- Chapter 6, 7 (pp. 247–330).
- Liao, Wen-shuo. "Exhibiting Chineseness: The Taiwan Provincial Exposition of 1948." Twentieth-Century China 37, no. 3 (2012): 183-203.
- Phillips, Steven E. Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950. Stanford University Press, 2003.
- Chapter 1, 4, 5 (pp. 1–15, 64–114).
- Strauss, Julia C. State Formation in China and Taiwan: Bureaucracy, Campaign, and Performance. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- Chapter 4, 5 (pp. 1–33, 168–242).
Recommended Reading:
- Phillips, Steven E. Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950. Stanford University Press, 2003.
- (Rest of book).
- Strauss, Julia C. State Formation in China and Taiwan: Bureaucracy, Campaign, and Performance. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- (Rest of book).
What was the Cold War? How did it affect everyday, lived experiences of people living in places like Kinmen and Taiwan?
- Szonyi, Michael. Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- Masuda, Hajimu. Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World. Harvard University Press, 2015.
- Introduction, Chapter 10 (pp. 1–10, 258–280).
Recommended Reading:
- Lin Hsiao-Ting. Accidental State: Chiang Kai-Shek, the United States, and the Making of Taiwan. Harvard University Press, 2016.
- Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. Strait Talk: United States-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China. Harvard University Press, 2011.
Week 8, 11/24: Development and Capitalism How did Taiwan become an economic “miracle”? What are the different theories and interpretations for explaining its miracle?
- Gold, Thomas B. State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle. ME Sharpe, 1986.
- Introduction, Chapters 5–6 (pp. 3–20, 56–96).
- Glassman, Jim. Drums of War, Drums of Development: The Formation of a Pacific Ruling Class and Industrial Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, 1945–1980. Brill, 2018.
- Introduction, first section of Chapter 5 (pp. 1–19, 381–413).
- Hamilton, Gary G., and Kao Cheng-Shu. Making Money: How Taiwanese Industrialists Embraced the Global Economy. Stanford University Press, 2017.
- Introduction, Chapter 3–4, (pp. 1–19, 58–99).
- Hart, Gillian Patricia. Disabling Globalization: Places of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa. University of California Press, 2002.
- Introduction, Chapter 5 (pp. 1–15, 165–197).
- Looney, Kristen E. Mobilizing for Development: The Modernization of Rural East Asia. Cornell University Press, 2020.
- Introduction, Chapter 2 (pp. 1–13, 49–79).
- Wade, Robert. Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization. Princeton University Press, 2004.
- Introduction, Chapter 1 (pp. 3–33).
Recommended Reading:
- Greene, J Megan. The Origins of the Developmental State in Taiwan: Science Policy and the Quest for Modernization. Harvard University Press, 2009.
- Hsing, You-tien. Making Capitalism in China: the Taiwan Connection. Oxford University Press, 1998.
- Kirby, William C. "Global Business Across the Taiwan Strait: The Case of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited" in Wen-hsin Yeh ed., Mobile Horizons: Dynamics Across the Taiwan Strait. Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley, 2013. pp. 178–208.
- Toner, Simon. "Imagining Taiwan: The Nixon Administration, the Developmental States, and South Vietnam’s Search for Economic Viability, 1969–1975." Diplomatic History 41, no. 4 (2017): 772–798.
What issues are faced by maturing democracies? How has Taiwan’s experience with democracy differed from other democracies?
- Ho, Ming-sho. Challenging Beijing's Mandate of Heaven: Taiwan's Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement. Temple University Press, 2019.
- Introduction, Chapters 1, 4, 7 (pp. 1–39, 95–116, 176–208).
- Martin, Jeffrey T. Sentiment, Reason, and Law: Policing in the Republic of China on Taiwan. Cornell University Press, 2019.
- Introduction, Chapters 2–6 (1–10, 33–148).
Recommended Reading:
- Hsiau, A-Chin. Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism. Routledge, 2003.
- Lin, Syaru Shirley. Taiwan’s China Dilemma: Contested Identities and Multiple Interests in Taiwan’s Cross-Strait Economic Policy. Stanford University Press, 2016.
- Madsen, Richard. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. University of California Press, 2007.
- McAllister, Ian. "Democratic Consolidation in Taiwan in Comparative Perspective." Asian Journal of Comparative Politics 1, no. 1 (2016): 44–61.
- Read, Benjamin. Roots of the State: Neighborhood Organization and Social Networks in Beijing and Taipei. Stanford University Press, 2012.
- Rigger Shelley. Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy. Routledge, 1999.
How do gender, labor, and migration interact in the experience of Southeast Asia domestic workers in Taiwan? For middle class Taiwanese families with children? What are the power differentials in these relationships?
- Lan, Pei-Chia. Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan. Duke University Press, 2006.
- Lan, Pei-Chia. Raising Global Families: Parenting, Immigration, and Class in Taiwan and the US. Stanford University Press, 2018.
- Chapter 3.
2 minute presentations of research projects
Recommended Reading:
- Chiang, Howard, and Yin Wang. Perverse Taiwan. Routledge, 2016.
- Hsiung, Ping-Chun. Living Rooms as Factories: Class, Gender, and the Satelite Factory System in Taiwan. Temple University Press, 1996.
- Lee, Anru. In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity: Labor and Gender Politics in Taiwan's Economic Restructuring. University of New York Press, 2004.
- Martin, Fran. S_ituating sexualities: Queer Representation in Taiwanese Fiction, Film and Public Culture_. Hong Kong University Press, 2003.