Announcements, Sept 16

Lots of stuff happening...

There's a session on Austronesian Taiwan at an upcoming Anthro conference...

Call for participation and feel free to circulate... Session on Austronesian Taiwan and other Austronesian Margins, Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO), Santa Cruz, CA, February 10-14, 2008

Austronesian Taiwan and other Austronesian Margins
Organizer: Kun-hui Ku

Due to their colonial history, Austronesian speakers in Taiwan were largely unknown to scholars outside of that island until recently; consequently studies of Austronesian Taiwan have been marginalized and left out of academic regional traditions in both Asian Studies (in spite geographical links) and Pacific Islands Studies (in spite of linguistic, genetic, and to a certain extent cultural links). Recent archaeological and linguistics debates about the Austronesian homeland and the dispersal of Austronesian speakers helped to boost the visibility of Austronesian speakers in Taiwan in wider academic arenas. This session brings together scholars who are interested in the study of Austronesian Taiwan placing this in dialogue with the wider literature on Oceania.

In addition, we will question conventional Pacific Islands culture area distinctions by using a broader Austronesian lens to stretch their customary limits, and we invite scholars working in other "marginal" areas of the Austronesian world to join us.

Please contact Kun-hui Ku by October 10, 2008 if you are interested in participating in the session.

Kun-hui Ku, Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing-Hua University, 101, Section 2, Kuang Fu Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC.

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The Fullbright scholarship has a Taiwan program. Check it out: http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/country/EasTaiTW.htm

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Papers from the fifth annual conference on Sino-European Relations and Cross-Strait Relations are online at this link. These include papers on Europe and the Cross-Strait situation, as well as the recent elections here.

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David Reid of David on Formosa flipped me the media announcement for the Taiwan blog awards. I am not in the running for this, and neither is David.

Media release
15 September 2008
for immediate release
Announcing the 2008 Taiwan Blog Awards

Taiwanderful has announced the 2008 Taiwan Best Blog Awards. The awards are for English-language blogs related to Taiwan in eight categories. Registration will take place over September, voting in October and the results will be announced in November.

There are hundreds of bloggers writing about Taiwan in English. The English language bloggers in Taiwan contribute some of the most comprehensive up-to-date information about the real Taiwan on a wide range of topics, from travel through politics to culture. The blogs combine personal commentary, photography and video. The blog awards are intended as a tribute to these devoted bloggers. Their blogs are a unique form of promotion for Taiwan.

Full details of the awards available at http://www.taiwanderful.net/blog/taiwan-best-blog-awards-2008

For further information contact
David Reid
e-mail: reid.david@yahoo.com.au

Gilad Feldman (Fili)
e-mail: filination@gmail.com

David is available for interviews in Taipei.

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And Dems Abroad are having a Happy Hour at Carnegie's.

Democrats Abroad Taiwan
Oct. 3rd Happy Hour at
Carnegie's Taipei

Come meet fellow Dems, enjoy a beverage or two, and get some
pointers from newsmeister extraordinaire David Chard on great
sources of the latest info about what's going on stateside and what's
really going on with the campaigns!

Where: Carnegie's Taipei, No. 100, AnHe Rd. Sec. 2; Tel: (02) 2325-4433
When: October 3rd, starting from 6 p.m.

For planning purposes, please let us know if you can come and
how many will be with you: democratsabroadtaiwan@gmail.com

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Finally, FAPA announces the latest issue of Taiwan Communique (#120) is out:

We are pleased to let you know that the new issue of our Taiwan Communiqué (no. 120) is off the press! The first article focuses on the new political landscape in Taiwan, and describes the reactions of many Taiwanese -- as exemplified by the massive turnout at the August 30th rally -- to the policies of the Ma Administration. We also present an analysis of the implications for US policy by Julian Baum, a veteran reporter on developments in Taiwan.

We then give a brief summary of the Visit to Washington of DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen. We subsequently turn to the question whether US arms sales to Taiwan are “frozen” and summarize the developments on that issue over the past three months.

The following topic is a The KMT’s recent UN-bid, which we describe as “meaningless” participation. This is followed by a brief article about former President Chen’s admission that he wired campaign funds overseas, and the question whether in Taiwan’s poisonous atmosphere, he can get a fair trial.

The Report from Washington in this issue looks at the Republican and Democratic campaign platforms and asks ”McCain vs. Obama: what’s in it for Taiwan?”

We close with not one but three Book Reviews of recent publications:
1. The “One China” dilemma, edited by Peter Chow,
2. Humanity at Stake, by Abraham Young, and
3. A Borrowed Voice, edited by Lynn Miles and Linda Arrigo

Below you find the table of contents. The full publication is attached and also available in PDF-format on our websites at www.taiwandc.org and www.fapa.org .

The hardcopy will be sent out in about a week to those who are on our mailing list.

Best regards,
Gerrit van der Wees, Editor, Taiwan Communiqué

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[Taiwan]