Culture Wars in Taiwan: Languages, Literature, Identities, and the Politics of Memory Workshop

To whom it may concern,

We are pleased to share information about the upcoming workshop organized by the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature and the International Taiwan Studies Center at National Taiwan Normal University. We warmly invite those who are interested to register and participate in the event.

Culture Wars in Taiwan: Languages, Literature, Identities, and the Politics of Memory Workshop

Date: Friday, December 5th, 2025

Venue: NTNU CLA Conference Room (B1, Cheng Building)

Registration information: 請點我

Note: This workshop will be conducted in English

Contact:

Corrina Gross <corrinagross01@gmail.com>

李泓瑨 <harriet0264@gmail.com>

Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature

National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan (NTNU)

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    Taiwan’s complex colonial history—from Dutch and Spanish settlements and Ching rule to Japanese colonization and martial law under the Republic of China—has produced layered legacies that continue to shape its cultural and political identities. These historically sedimented “regimes of truth,” to borrow Foucault’s term, generate enduring tensions both within Taiwan—where “Taiwaneseness” is continually negotiated in relation to “Chineseness”—and externally, in Taiwan’s fraught relations with China. Such tensions extend beyond the political arena: the battle for hearts and minds, and for the island’s future, unfolds through everyday acts of cultural production and consumption. In this sense, Taiwan remains engaged in an ongoing cultural war.

    This workshop examines how Taiwan’s cultural identities are formed, contested, and weaponized across diverse historical and contemporary contexts: 

• Colonial Legacies and Collective Memory: How Taiwan’s colonial past continues to structure cultural memory, identity formation, and social conflict.
• “Taiwaneseness” vs. “Chineseness:” Struggles over national belonging, cultural identity, and political allegiance within Taiwan.
• Literature, Language, and Popular Culture: How novels, poetry, film, music, media, and debates over national language reflect and shape Taiwan’s identity tensions.
• The Silent War on Culture: How China’s cultural strategies—censorship, appropriation, disinformation, and historical erasure—seek to undermine Taiwan’s cultural autonomy and identity.
• Technology, AI, and the Weaponization of Language: How digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and linguistic tools are mobilized in identity struggles—from disinformation campaigns to AI-generated narratives about Taiwan’s cultural legitimacy.