Taiwan is a small island with a large population (23.5 million) and of huge importance for Mainland China and, increasingly, the world. Taiwan is the 7th largest economy in Asia and the 22nd in the world; it is geographically situated in a spot with potential escalating conflicts between the world’s main powers; and it is increasingly seen as a counter movement to growing trends of totalitarianism elsewhere.
Very many aspects of Chinese language, literature, art, religion, as well as cultural practices and traditions, can be studied from Taiwan. The island has a complex history of colonization, and after the civil war in China and take-over by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party, the losing part, Kuomintang and its leader Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan and built a new authoritarian regime there. Taiwan has since then gone through a remarkable transformation to what some analysts today call Asia’s most well-functioning democracy. Taiwan is interesting in itself for students of China and Chinese culture, but its political history and growing global status, now also calls for considerable interest from other academic disciplines, and from policy makers and economic actors.
This course will introduce you to the complexities of Taiwan’s culture, history, society and political status and practices in global context.