Programme Taiwan Studies Project - EHESS

Island of traditions and contrasts, Taiwan attracts the interest of many academics and students throughout the world. The many articles, theses, dissertations, films and projects deserve to be collected and widely diffused. This is what our site intends to do. Enthusiasts, browsers, professionals and all are welcome to discover the research on Taiwan carried out in France and elsewhere.

Discussion with Alexandre Gandil about his book Kinmen, un archipel entre Taiwan et la Chine

Speaker : Alexandre Gandil (Lecturer at Université Bordeaux Montaigne, CERI, AFET)

For this session, Alexandre Gandil will present a reading of the principal geopolitical and symbolic stakes associated with the Kinmen archipelago, a Taiwanese territory located just off the coast of mainland China. A legacy of the Chinese Civil War, long militarised and subsequently marginalised, Kinmen today stands at the centre of renewed strategic projections. This talk invites us to reconsider the Sino-Taiwanese question through the lens of this singular frontier, and to reflect on the complex interrelations between territory, state, and nation in the Sinophone world.

Book abstract :

A vestige of both the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950) and the Cold War, the Kinmen (Quemoy) archipelago lies just a few kilometres off the coast of the People’s Republic of China, facing the mainland province of Fujian. And yet, the flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan) still flies over these islands.

In 1949, during his retreat to Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek managed to hold the Nationalist army on this cluster of coastal islands across the Taiwan Strait from the main island of Taiwan—an occupation that twice brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the 1950s. Briefly the focus of international attention, Kinmen—an archipelago no larger than Liechtenstein, inhabited by only a few tens of thousands—soon faded from view. That is, until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 revived interest in Kinmen, albeit through often inapt comparisons, casting it anew as a locus of concern and curiosity.

Beyond the prism of past or future military confrontation, however, Kinmen invites us to decentre our gaze on China and Taiwan. Straddling both sides of the Taiwan Strait, beyond the so-called median line, this small archipelago—wrenched from the continent in the mid-twentieth century—has since posed enduring challenges to historical, political, and geographical understandings of state and nation formation in the Sinophone world, with lessons that resonate well beyond the region.

This book is essential reading for those seeking to grasp the dynamics of the Sino-Taiwanese question and the threats it poses to global peace in these precarious times, as well as for anyone interested in reassessing the relationship between state and nation from a comparative perspective.

Journées Jeunes Chercheurs en études taïwanaises 2025 青年學者臺灣研究研討會

The Taiwan Studies Project – EHESS and the Association Francophone d’Études Taïwanaises (AFET) will host the thirteenth edition of the Junior Researchers’ Workshop in Taiwan Studies, to be held on 24–25 April 2025 at the EHESS, Paris.

A flagship initiative of the AFET, this annual event has, over time, become a significant milestone in the academic trajectory of early-career researchers and a key moment in the consolidation of Taiwan Studies in the French-speaking world. Its objective is to bring together junior researchers of all nationalities — undergraduate and postgraduate students, doctoral candidates, and recent PhD holders — to present their research before an audience composed of peers, lecturers, and senior scholar, all specialists in Taiwan Studies and representing a broad range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.
This year’s edition will feature presentations by twelve junior researchers, each followed by comments from a senior scholar and a discussion with the audience, designed to foster dialogue and collective reflection.
The workshop offers a valuable forum for the exchange of fieldwork experiences, research questions, and methodological approaches, in a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment.
The event will also include the awarding of the eighth Christian Ricourt Prize for Emerging Francophone Scholars in Taiwan Studies, which aims to support academic research and the pursuit of fieldwork.

China’s Taiwan Policy in the 21st Century: What is the "Peaceful Unification" Policy?

Yasuhiro Matsuda, Professeur de politique internationale (Université de Tokyo)

 

The question, “Will China invade Taiwan?” is frequently raised. While China continues to advocate for its “peaceful unification” policy, it simultaneously strengthens its nuclear capabilities to deter U.S. intervention and bolsters its conventional military forces in preparation for a potential occupation of Taiwan. Furthermore, the “peaceful unification” policy has historically encompassed the potential use of force.

What underpins China’s policy toward Taiwan? By thoroughly analyzing China’s approach, we can gain insights into the future trajectory of relations between mainland China and Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

Life stories and stories from Taiwan

Huang Jen-An, President of the Shilien Foundation for Education and CultureTranslate : Tu Tsao-Yin

 

Huang Jen-An was born in 1942, and was graduated from the Department of Law of National Taiwan University in 1964. He went to Japan in 1967 and entered the Graduate School of Law of Kobe University the following year, specializing in the study of international regulations related to container transportation.

After completing his studies in Japan, he returned to Taiwan in 1970. Soon he joined the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and was engaged in shipping and container planning. He later resigned from public office and started his own business-CTW Logistics Corporation in 1974.

 Conceived with the notion of “Thank for the love from parents and give back to all in the local community,” Mr. Huang donated to establish the CTW Culture and Education Foundation in 1998. Over the past 25 years, the foundation has sought to advocate social charity in education and culture, environmental protection and industrial development in conjunction with government resources with a focus on local residents, social groups, environment and industry. It also translates the ideal into concrete and incremental actions to materialize the corporate philosophy of CTW Logistics in “Give back to society, Give back to the Earth.”In the future, the foundation will align with social change to further commit its resources to social charity in the aspects of culture and education in diversity.

Judicaël Perigois (PHD student EPHE - CRCAO) King Cheng in ancient sources : the construction of a commemorative character

Discussant : Alexis Lycas Associate professor and Researcher (EPHE - CRCAO )

 

The Western Zhou dynasty (1045 to 771 BC) is considered a golden age in Chinese historiography. Confucius, in particular, made many references to this period, mentioning Kings Wen and Wu, the founders of the dynasty, as well as the Duke of Zhou, King Wu’s brother. Thanks to his virtue, King Wen is said to have received the Mandate of Heaven, the right to rule. As for King Wu, he overthrew the Shang dynasty and formally established the dynasty. After his death, the Duke of Zhou acted as regent to King Wu’s heir, King Cheng, and was from then on regarded as the person who had enabled the consolidation of dynastic power. The figure of King Cheng, who reigned for several decades, remains somewhat less prominent. My research aims to show how King Cheng was evoked as a historical figure in ancient sources, especially from the time of his reign up to the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE), in different ways depending on the context in which these sources were produced. My study aims to reassess the significance of King Cheng’s reign in the memory of ancient China.

 

 

 

Meeting with Beatrice Zani for the discussion of her book Women Migrants in Southern China and in Taiwan. Mobilities, digital economies and emotions (Routledge, 2022).

Beatrice Zani Chargée de recherche au CNRS (LISE UMR 3320)

Conférence Beatrice Zani 08 janvier

 

This book, based on extensive original research, explores the lives, the migratory experiences and the social, economic, and emotional practices of Chinese migrant women during their migrations and mobilities in China, from China to Taiwan, from Taiwan to China and in between the two countries. It illustrates how women on the move experience social contempt, misrecognition and economic marginalisation; how women migrants seek autonomy, economic independence, upward social mobility and modernity, but discover the Chinese inegalitarian social order and labour regimes which produce obstacles and impede their ambitions; and how old and new forms of subalternity are reproduced. Overall, the book emphasises what it feels like for the women migrants as they negotiate their way at the crossroad between subalternity and resistance, between subordinated labour and independent, digital entrepreneurship, and between an inegalitarian labour market and new, online opportunities for business and commerce.

 

 

 

Academic Year 2024-2025

The Programme Taiwan Studies Project – EHESS team is happy to announce that its seminar is returning for its seventh year. The first session will take place on 14 October 2024.

About the Project

Find out more about the story of our project and the team behind it.

The Seminar

TSP – EHESS is centred around a seminar conducted each year at the EHESS.

Bridging The Strait

In front of a camera, young Chinese and Taiwanese students share their outlook on cross-strait relations.

Taiwan Studies

Directory of archives of academic works on Taiwan.