Center News

The Center Welcomes Three New Associates

Jin Liu

Dr. Liu teaches Chinese language and culture in the School of Modern languages at Georgia Tech. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Literature from Cornell University and her M.A. and B.A. in Chinese Linguistics from Peking University. She recently completed a co-edited book entitled "Chinese Under Globalization: Emerging Trends in Language Use in China." She is currently working on a book manuscript on the cultural productions rendered in local languages in the fields of film, television, the Internet, popular music, and fiction over the past decade in mainland China.

Tonio Andrade

Tonio Andrade teaches history at Emory University. His major Books are How Taiwan Became Chinese (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) and Lost Colony: The Untold Story of Europe’s First War with China (Princeton University Press, 2011). Tonio’s research is part of a new field in historical studies known as Global History, which focuses on commonalities and connections between the myriad societies on the planet rather than on traditionally-defined political or cultural units. His core geographical area of expertise is China, specifically Taiwan, but he focuses on maritime interconnections in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800).

Qi Wang

Qi Wang is an assistant Professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology. She has a Ph.D in Film and Television from the University of California, Los Angeles (2008). Her research interests include issues of historicity, spatiality, and physicality in cinema and new media; Chinese cinema; documentary; Cold War Asian Cinema; dance film. She is currently writing a book on contemporary independent Chinese cinema and media and their relationship with (post-) socialist historical memory.

Janice Kuo joins as the Center’s 2011-12 Intern

Janice Kuo is a senior at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. She is double majoring in Chinese and Business, with a double concentration in Marketing and Management. Janice speaks both Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese fluently. Her interests include singing, traditional Chinese dance, acting, cooking, and interior design.

Scholar from China is Visiting at Mercer University

Heidi Haitang Yao is a graduate student from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. She is working on her Ph.D. dissertation in economics at Mercer University for six months. Her topic is to analyze the international trade in services in the U.S. and China. She can be reached at yaohaitang3452@yahoo.com.cn.

New Volume on Taiwan Published

Taiwan’s Democracy: Economic and Political Challenges, Edited by Robert Ash, University of London, John Garver, Georgia Institute of Technology and Penelope B. Prime, Mercer University (London and New York: Routledge, 2011).

Taiwan’s rapid industrialization during the 1960s and 1970s, combined with the democratic revolution that began with the lifting of martial law in late 1987 were of deep historic importance. Taiwan’s transition, alongside similar peaceful transitions to democracy in South Korea and the Philippines in East Asia, was part of what Samuel Huntington called "the third wave" of global democratization. The sphere of liberal democracy in East Asia thereby expanded considerably, hammering the final nail in the coffin of the belief that Confucian political culture was incompatible with modern democracy. Over the next decade Taiwan’s "political miracle" matched its earlier "economic miracle" creating a vibrant liberal democracy complete with freedom of speech, association and assembly, rule of law, and competitive and fair multi-party elections.

The continuation of these achievements and the new challenges that have surfaced are addressed in rich detail in the chapters of this volume. One of the biggest such challenges is Mainland China’s economic success, which has added to the complexity of Taiwan’s economic and political policy options. A number of the contributors consider Taiwan’s response to China’s economic rise and show how Taiwanese companies have strategically taken advantage of the changing economic environment by moving up the value chain of production within Taiwan while also taking the opportunity to invest overseas.