The Monday Lecture Series: Taiwan Literature and Culture in Focus
Zoom ID: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/66676242329

Reading Taiwan through the Lenses of Literature and Environment

This lecture proposes to study contemporary Taiwan through the lenses of literature and environment. The lecture presents several key environmental issues that occurred to Taiwan throughout mid-20th and early 21st century, including pollutions from heavy industries (textiles, petrochemicals and electronics), radioactive nuclear waste, and tourism development. The first half of the lecture contextualises these issues in relation to the complex political situation in the Post-War East Asian societies as well as Taiwan’s diversified indigenous cultures. The second half of the lecture introduces three contemporary Taiwanese eco-writers, Wu Ming-yi吳明益, Syaman Rapongan夏曼藍波安 and Liao Hong-ji 廖鴻基, and examines a number of their eco-literature. Studying these literary works, the lecture reflects on how contemporary Taiwanese literature gradually shapes specific environmental discourses such as anti-nuclear movement, promotion of indigenous traditional knowledge, and conservation of marine biodiversity in the Asia Pacific region.

Dr. Ti-han Chang is a lecturer in Asia Pacific Studies at University of Central Lancashire. She researches and teaches across a range of interdisciplinary subjects such as sustainable development and socio-political movements in the Asia Pacific region. Specialised in in Taiwan studies, she delivers module specifically dedicated to the postcolonial history, literature and society in Taiwan. Ti-han is particularly interested in postcolonial ecocriticism, which draws her attention to topics such as nonhuman agency, borders and nations, climate change and migration. Since 2019, she is engaged with multiple research projects which investigate the impacts of climate change on the Pacific Islands and the voices of indigenous populations. Apart from her journal publications on Taiwanese eco-literature, she also contributes online articles on more general environmental and literature topics for The Conversation and Taiwan Insights.

The Monday Lecture Series: Taiwan Literature and Culture in Focus is curated by Prof. Irmy Schweiger, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies.
This lecture series has been made possible with the generous funding provided by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan and the kind support from Taipei Mission, Stockholm.