Shifting Identities in Multicultural Taiwan
This seminar seeks to examine the politics of difference in Taiwan.
Taiwan has been hailed as a successful case of democratization. Compared with many other nations, the transition from authoritarian rule occurred in a rather orderly fashion. Group consciousness emerged as a reaction to the decades-long suppression of cultural diversity under martial law as different social groups competed fiercely to exert their political subjectivity. This seminar seeks to examine the politics of difference in Taiwan. It aims to go beyond ethnic identity as the sole concern for group boundary, to acknowledge the interests of other marginalized groups, and to look behind reified group boundaries in order to discover group differences as mediated social relations based on overlapping boundaries rather than exclusive opposition. The seminar will be followed by a book presentation on the newly published volume on Politics of Difference in Taiwan.
Programme
15.30-17.00
Cultural Difference, Social Recognition, and Political Representation in Taiwan
Prof. dr. Tak-Wing Ngo (IIAS, the Netherlands)
Taiwanese or Chinese? Taishangs in Taiwan and China
Dr. Chun-Yi Lee (University of Duisburg, Germany)
17.00-17.30
Book Launch
Politics of Difference in Taiwan, eds. Tak-Wing Ngo and Hong-zen Wang (London and New York: Routledge, 2011).