Theme
Power, Knowledge Production, and Agency: Towards
a Critical Taiwan Studies
A fundamental question facing researchers who devote themselves to
Taiwan studies may be "Taiwan studies for what" or "what
kind of questions to be addressed in Taiwan studies." The point
of Taiwan studies is not merely to study Taiwan, but to contribute to
the process of bringing about social transformations in Taiwan. The
critical elements of gender/sexuality studies, for example, often contain
the idea of "gender/sexuality equality" as part of the analytical
strategy. The study of language discrimination/exclusion may include
the value "language diversity" or "multilingualism."
In other words, critical Taiwan studies encompasses analyses of Taiwan's
society from the viewpoint of an emancipatory future-the elimination
of (gender/sexuality, class, race/ethnicity, and nationality) oppression,
exploitation and domination in political, economic and cultural spheres-and
therefore contributing to new visions of a more democratic, equalitarin
and just society in Taiwan.
Viewing knowledge as an means of transformation, critical Taiwan studies
aims to trace out the entire circuit of knowledge production, provide
a better understanding of gender/sexuality, class, and race/ethnicity
power relations embedded in Taiwan's society, and reflectively see itself
as part of the process of creating the emancipatory possibilities. The
task of researchers, as Hobsbawm described, is to be "professional
remembrancers of what [our] fellow citizens wish to forget." Our
tasks not only involve rigorously criticizing differential relations
of power, but also detailing the contradictory dynamics in these relations;
that is, to show the spaces where alternative and oppositional actions
are either currently going on or are possible.
