On August 21, 2017, a renewed Memorandum of Agreement on Taiwan Studies Lectureship was signed by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Dean of Humanities David Schaberg, Asian Pacific Center (APC) Director Min Zhou and the Director of the Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, Rebecca Lan, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, to continue the collaboration between Taiwan and UCLA of fostering Taiwan Studies.
The UCLA Taiwan Studies Lectureship (TSL) was initially launched in 2014, is a joint efforts of the Asia Pacific Center and the Division of Humanities supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. TSL aims to promote and broaden understanding of Taiwan’s politics, history, society, languages and culture. The MOA provides funding for Taiwan-related research and activities, courses, curriculum development, academic publications, conferences, seminars and Taiwan Studies events on UCLA campus.
According to UCLA, the initial phase (2014-2017) of the TSL focuses on connections between contemporary Taiwan and the classical tradition in which it is rooted. The second phase, beginning in 2017, will expand to examine Taiwan’s culture and identity in historical, global, and transnational contexts.
The signing ceremony took place at the TECO office in Los Angeles. In addition to David Schaberg and Min Zhou, APC Executive Director Elizabeth Leicester and Assistant Director Aaron Miller also joined the ceremony. The Deputy Director General of TECO-LA, Benson Wang was invited as the attesting witness of the signing ceremony. He praised UCLA for its many achievements and for contributing to stronger academic link between U.S. and Taiwan. The above four representatives from UCLA spoke positively regarding the long-standing co-operation between Taiwan and UCLA and thanked Taiwan for its support over the years. In the past 3 years, UCLA TSP has succeeded in expanding the study of Taiwan and its role as a locus of scholarship on the Chinese classics on campus. The TSP activities also promoted greater visibility and stronger ties between scholars in Taiwan and UCLA faculty and graduate students. Under this latest MOA, collaboration will continue for 3 years until 2019, making another exciting chapter for Taiwan Studies at UCLA.
The signing ceremony was followed by the press conference, in which David Schaberg and Min Chou were interviewed by local Chinese media. They pointed out Taiwanese students and faculties are all hardworking, having outstanding academic performance, thus making lots of contribution to promoting internationalization at UCLA. They recognized the great significance of this MOA and the goal of the second three-year stage of the UCLA TSP is to stimulate greater and broader interests in the program’s continual development and promote Taiwan in a global context.
Besides offering courses and lectures of Taiwan Studies, the TSP will continue to host visiting scholars and offer funding for graduate students and faculty to pursue research in Taiwan. It will also support the acquisition of unique databases of Taiwan archival material to augment the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library collection, recently designated as a Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies. Furthermore, Prof. Michael Berry, a prominent scholar and translator of contemporary Chinese and Sinophone literature, Prof. Yinghui Wu, a scholar of fiction and drama of the Ming and Qing as well as Prof. Shu-mei, a famous scholar of Asian Language, Culture and Asian American Studies will also join the project. They believe all these efforts will help more people understand Taiwan’s political, economic, social and cultural transformation and development.
The TSP is expected to enhance the visibility of Taiwan Studies, strengthen the connection between Taiwan scholars and UCLA faculty and students, further promoting Asia Pacific Studies communities to share their research interests in Taiwan studies.
The Signing Ceremony and Press Conference of the MOA on Taiwan Studies Lectureship Signed by Education Division, TECO-LA and UCLA (From the right: Director of Education Division, TECO-LA Rebecca Lan, Deputy Director General of TECO-LA Benson Wang, Dean of Humanities at UCLA David Schaberg, Director of Asia Pacific Center (APC) at UCLA Min Zhou, APC Executive Director Elizabeth Leicester and APC Assistant Director Aaron Miller)
