Each year, we offer two regular introductory courses on Taiwan Studies, open to students from across Kyushu University. We also offer three or more intensive courses delivered by invited lecturers from Taiwan or overseas.

East Asian Images of Japan - Taiwanese experience in comparative perspective

This course is offered in the Winter semester as a senior-level foundational course - open to undergraduate students from all departments within Kyushu University. It discusses how Japan has been portrayed across post-war East Asia, analyzing how the shifting portrayals of the Japanese ‘Other’ have reflected changing conceptions of national (or sub-national) ‘selves’ throughout the region. Particular focus is placed on the case of Taiwan, where dominant conceptions of identity have perhaps experienced the most dramatic shift in recent decades. Besides comparing Taiwan with the other societies of ‘Greater China’ (the mainland and Hong Kong) and with Korea (the other major former Japanese colony), lectures also discuss the cases of Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The portrayal of Japan in school curricula and textbooks will be extensively considered, but extensive reference will also be made to other vehicles for public or popular culture, from museums and memorials to film and comics. The course will provide students with a clear sense of the historical, political and cultural forces and factors underlying the vastly differing attitudes towards Japan held by neighbouring countries across East and Southeast Asia.

POSTGRADUATE SEMINAR: An introduction to Taiwan Studies - History, Politics, Sociology and Culture

This seminars series is offered in the summer semester (April to July). It introduces Taiwan as a fascinating field for research from various disciplinary perspectives – from History and Anthropology to Economics, Sociology, Political Science and Comparative Education. Beginning with a survey of Taiwan’s history from the 17th century onwards, it introduces students to the highly politicized contemporary debates surrounding that history, and their relationship to the controversy over Taiwan’s identity and political status. A second set of lectures examines the politics and economics of post-war and contemporary Taiwan, including the origins of Taiwan’s developmental success, and crucial commercial relationships with the Chinese mainland and elsewhere. Finally, the course turns to issues of culture and identity, reviewing the evolution of the debate over the nature of Taiwan as a community and a political entity. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of the contours of Taiwan’s recent past, and of the nature and significance of the ongoing controversies over its future.

intensive courses and Seminars

Each year, at least three intensive courses relating to Taiwan are offered by invited lecturers from Kyushu University's Taiwanese partners or other overseas institutions. These are open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. For more information, click here.