JSIS 414 A | CMS 320 C
Made in Taiwan
Arts and Culture of Contemporary Taiwan
Mondays & Wednesdays 10:30 am – 12:20 pm in person
Instructor: Ellen Y. Chang | eychang@uw.edu
Office Hours (available in-person & via Zoom): 15-min slot on MW 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm.
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY! Visit Calendly to make an appointment.
Everything you need for this course can be found in Modules
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course will provide an introduction to the arts and culture of contemporary Taiwan through audio/visual texts of several key themes. Beginning with the cinematic works that emerge from the two student movements in Taiwan—the Wild Lily Movement in 1990 and the more recent Sunflower Movement in 2014, we will consider the role of Taiwanese cultural producers and productions as sites of encounter, of everyday engagements across difference, where discrepant stakes and histories are brought together in ways that produce new cultural meanings and identities (Leiba Faier and Lisa Rofel, “Ethnographies of Encounter”).
Our travels over the quarter will explore a curated series of audio/visual works that embody the multi-faceted narratives of “Made in Taiwan” as they capture the complexity and multiplicity of Taiwan’s artistic and cultural scenes both within and beyond the geopolitical boundaries of the island nation, as well as the tensions and debates that emerge at moments of cross-cultural interactions. Audio/visual materials are a key foundation of this course for several reasons: 1) they allow a more immediate and immersive mode of multi-sensorial encounter with the arts and culture of Taiwan that is as close as we can get while being physically away; and 2) this particular form of audio/visual encounter highlights the social, political, and economic effects brought about by the circulations of people, things, ideas, and social practices—all embedded in these cultural representations and requires our critical analysis. Our audio/visual sites of inquiry range from documentary and narrative films by both local Taiwanese and international filmmakers, independent and major labels music, folksongs, recordings of live performance, video art and installation, photo- and video-essays, television series, animations, video games, and vlogs, some of which were made with a distinct local or international audience in mind while others embrace both. Each class meeting consists of a mini-lecture by the instructor, followed by a guided, in-depth, seminar-style discussion. In addition to exploring the audio/visual archive, the reading, lectures, guest talks, and collaborative research projects will critically survey contested issues (re)framing the complex identities of Taiwan by addressing topics such as the role of gender as it intersects with other social formations, indigeneity of Taiwan, indigenous land rights and environmental protests, how migrant workers and transnational marriage confront racial construct and multiculturalism of Taiwan, sports as vehicles for navigating national identity, collective trauma and cultural memories, cultural productions as soft power to negotiate global politics, and how local folk culture—cuisines, rituals, lifestyles—becomes spectacles for local and international tourism, urban regeneration, and community mobilization.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course, students should have a good idea of what Taiwan is, what it looks, sounds, and feels like, and be able to discuss cultural products and issues about Taiwan in relation to local and global perspectives and interactions. Students will also develop competencies in the use of digital media for research and knowledge sharing by producing creative, collaborative academic work, including a digital, class-produced compendium of keywords related to the theme of Made in Taiwan. In the process of exploring interdisciplinary and multimodal approaches embedded in this course, students will build a shared vocabulary that integrates a variety of perspectives and will develop new, more complex ways of thinking. Students with expertise in any of the themes, issues, or texts discussed in this course are encouraged to provide historical depth and introduce further examples and materials that will push our thinking about how to engage cultural productions of a specific country both for pleasure and critically.