CCS MA students participate in fieldtrips to Taiwan

Last month, the Centre sponsored two Master’s-level field trips to Taiwan. Students participated in either one trip analysing “Issues in Contemporary China” or another focusing on “Chinese Arts and Culture.”

Issues in Contemporary China
From 8 to 13 December, 2015, a selection of the Centre’s MA students, led by Dr. Jiang Yihong, participated in a field trip exploring domestic politics in contemporary Taiwan under the title “Issues in Contemporary China.” Our students visited the election campaign headquarters of the two leading parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), observed election campaign activities, and held discussions with politicians from the two major parties and new “third force” parties. They also attended meetings with civil society activists as well as lectures by guest speakers from Soochow University, National Chengchi University, and Academia Sinica.

Chinese Arts and Culture
From 14 to 19 December, 2015, fifteen students in the “Chinese Arts and Culture” stream of the MA in Chinese Studies went on a fieldtrip to Taipei led by Dr. Kristof Van den Troost. With the trip organized around the theme “Taiwanese cinema”, students visited SPOT Taipei, the Arrow Film Studio, IFA Media, the Taipei Film Commission and the Taiwan Film Institute, and interacted with well-known documentary filmmaker Yang Li-chou, Prof. Lin Wen-chi (head of the Taipei Film Institute), Mr. Austin Hsu (editor-in-chief of Film Appreciation Journal), Ms. Jennifer Jao (head of the Taipei Film Commission), and various other film and media professionals. Meanwhile students also worked on their own research projects, and reported on their progress during the last day in Taipei.