Signing Ceremony for the Spotlight Taiwan Project 2022

In a ceremony on May 10, Monika Gänssbauer, Head of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Stacy Huang, Acting Director of Education Division, Taipei Mission in Sweden signed a contract on the implementation of the Stockholm Spotlight Taiwan Project 2022.

Monika Gänssbauer, Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre, Vincent Yao and Stacy Huang at a ceremony on 10 May.
Monika Gänssbauer, Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre, Vincent Yao and Stacy Huang at the signing ceremony. Photo: Anneli Hilmersson

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Vincent Yao, Head of the Taipei Mission in Sweden and deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Professor Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre.

In her welcome note Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre stressed the significance of international cooperation and mutual understanding in general but even more so given the current situation. She pointed out that this programme will provide many occasions for intercultural learning and exchange across cultures and disciplines. Elisabeth Wåghäll Nivre finally expressed her gratitude for the generous support from the Taipei Mission in Sweden, not least to generate visibility and attention for language-based study programmes at Stockholm University.

“I am glad to see the project materialize and strengthen the collaboration between Sweden and Taiwan. It is a great opportunity to make Taiwan’s culture better known to Sweden”, Vincent Yao stated at the ceremony.

The Stockholm Spotlight Taiwan Project 2022 consists of a Taiwan Film Festival screening four documentaries at The Museum of Ethnography and four feature films at Bio Grand. Two Backstage Talks and Q&A sessions with documentary filmmakers, who will visit Stockholm, offer a deeper insight and a look “backstage”. A digital lecture series on Taiwan’s literary and visual cultures at Stockholm University will complement the project, where researchers from Taiwan and Europe share their insights and knowledge on topics related to Taiwan’s cultural, historical, ecological and political landscape via Zoom.

Project leader Irmy Schweiger, Professor of Chinese language and culture at Stockholm University, explains the three main goals of the Stockholm Spotlight Taiwan Project 2022: “To reach out to the general public in Sweden and bring together the Taiwanese and Chinese diaspora with the Swedish audience; to integrate the project as practical experience into the curriculum at our department; and to facilitate interest in research on Taiwan’s cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity, its multi-layered history and variety of stories and literatures.”

Stockholm Spotlight Taiwan 2022 will run during the autumn term 2022 and is realized in cooperation with The Asian Film Festival (Asiatiska Filmfestivalen), The Museum of Ethnography and Bio Grand. The complete programme will be announced shortly.

Apart from Elisabeth Wåghall-Nivre, Vincent Yao, Monika Gänssbauer, Stacy Huang and Irmy Schweiger, the ceremony was attended by Hailin Wang, lecturer for Chinese Studies, Anneli Hilmersson, Head of Administration at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Jack Huang, Secretary at Taipei Mission.