Public Lecture by Professor J. Bruce Jacobs on " Reconsidering Taiwan: "Aborigines, Colonial Rulers and Democratization"

The China Policy Institute is delighted to announce that J. Bruce Jacobs a Professor of Asian Languages and Studies from Monash University, Australia will be presenting in the first of the 2013 series of Taiwan Studies lectures.

Title: Reconsidering Taiwan: Aborigines, Colonial Rulers and Democratization

Abstract : Taiwan has a contested history. Research demonstrates the historical arguments of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo as well as the Chinese Communists regarding Taiwan are deeply flawed. When the Dutch came to Taiwan in 1624, no permanent Han Chinese communities existed on Taiwan; it was the Dutch who imported Chinese labor. Colonial goverment is rule by outsiders and Taiwan lived under six successive colonial governments from 1624 until 1988. During this period of time, the only Han Chinese government based on the Chinese mainland to rule Taiwan was the Chinese Nationalist authoritarian regime during the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949). In fact, this was Taiwan's greatest time of sorrow. This history has important implications for Taiwan's current identity and has significance for how world powers should treat Taiwan today.

 Speaker Biography: Bruce Jacobs is Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. After completing his AB degree at Columbia University, he first went to Taiwan as a postgraduate student in history at National Taiwan University in 1965. He conducted his Columbia University PhD research in rural Taiwan in 1971-1973. Professor Jacobs' recent books include Local Politics in Rural Taiwan under Dictatorship and Democracy (Norwalk, CT: EastBridge, 2008) and Democratizing Taiwan (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012). He has just completed the editing and writing the introduction for a four-volume work on cross-strait relations to be published by Brill. In addition, he has published over seventy refereed journal articles and book chapters as well as numerous book reviews and opinion columns.