The Taiwan studies program at Inalco may not have the same level of resources that more established programs and centers around the world have, but Prof. Liu Chan-yueh’s innovative approach to the incorporation of Taiwan-themed collaborative events and student research has led to some incredible results. Read on for the story behind it all and gain inspiration for new ways to expand Taiwan studies.
1. How many years have you been at Inalco?
I first began teaching at Inalco during the 2019-2020 academic year. At first, I was primarily teaching Mandarin, but later applied to teach Taiwanese. Starting in the 2020-2021 academic year, the department voted to teach two semesters of Taiwanese to third year students.
2. What makes the Taiwan studies program at Inalco different from other programs in Europe?
There are a few things that make Inalco’s Taiwan Studies Program special:
1.In accordance with Inalco’s pedagogical and research traditions, our Taiwan Studies Program focuses on Taiwanese languages as a mediator of Taiwan’s culture. That is, we have a complete course of study for the major families of Taiwanese languages: Taiwanese Tâi-gí, Taiwanese Hakka, Austronesian Taiwanese languages, and Taiwanese Mandarin.
2. We devote a very large proportion of our class and lecture time to learning about modern Taiwanese society in Taiwanese languages. In other words, students have a great deal of direct contact with these languages in the classroom, instead of learning them primarily through English or French. Our aim is to construct a space for research and study where participants can directly interact with these languages. Recently, I have become more and more convinced that understanding a country, a society, or a culture needs to be done by building stronger exchanges through and using the languages that that country, society, or culture uses. And Taiwan, as a culture or system of knowledge, can use its languages to broaden its exchange with other countries.
3. Inalco’s Taiwan research emphasizes understanding the growth of Taiwan studies as a field, and on the partnerships it has created. The main focus of our study is on the intellectual identity of Taiwan’s society, including its political system, social movements, artistic and literary creations, religious beliefs, and technological development. In examining these knowledge systems, it is particularly important to consider how they are processes of change, trajectories and contexts of multilateral exchanges, unique concepts of innovation and development, how they together constitute trends of Taiwanisation, and how they manifest the uniqueness and modes of discourse of Taiwanisation. With my own personal background, Inalco offers a special space for the discussion of mass culture and the visual and performing arts. These fields are often unappreciated or overlooked, but they have great potential in building networks for communication.
3. It seems that your vision at Inalco actually goes far beyond the Taiwan studies field. What inspired you to collaborate with other departments when putting on Taiwan-themed events?
My own academic career or area of interest has always been in cross-field and cross-cultural efforts. To broaden and deepen Taiwan studies all around the world and make more exchange possible, I chose to try to work with as many disparate fields and departments as possible. The other main reason is that I did not want Taiwan studies to get stuck in Taiwan. Working with people from other fields is a way to get them to interact with the possibilities that a Taiwan studies space provides. Furthermore, they can provide new perspectives and ideas for Taiwan studies. If you stay in one lane for too long, you’ll miss where your blind spots are.
Practical examples of cross-departmental collaborative are some of the following events:
1. How should we refer to national languages? The cases of Taiwanese Tâi-gí and Berber languages.
2. How can art become a medium for critically evaluating society? This event featured Taiwanese artists alongside discussion on how Soviet-era artists used humour to evade censorship.
3. How do we address indigenous peoples in a modern society? The cases of Taiwan, the Philippines and Polynesia.
4. Why was the concept of a ‘national language’ invented and what is the meaning in today’s society? The case of Taiwan and India.
4. Have you found students are more interested in Taiwan than you expected?
I can share a few things that surprised me. Ever since I started teaching Taiwanese, I always get asked why people want to study it, by both foreigners and Taiwanese. This is an interesting question, but in reply, maybe we can ask, why not?
Maybe the first surprise I can touch on is the Taiwanese online learning platform I set up for the Centre for East Asian Linguistics Research, Taiwan studies program. One of the goals of this platform is to break through the limitations of space and time to create a space for exchange and the study of Taiwanese languages. By Taiwanese languages, I mean Taiwanese Tâi-gí, Taiwanese Hakka, and Taiwanese Austronesian languages. This year, our online class worked with the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at NTNU and the Hakka Language Center and Center for Indigenous Knowledge Systems at NKNU to set up four classes in Taiwanese Tâi-gí, one in Hakka, one in Hla’alua, and one in Squliq Tayal. In conducting our survey of participants, we received over 200 replies. These students were people in France and other European countries, other foreigners living and working in Taiwan, Taiwanese living overseas, and people in Taiwan looking for opportunities to study Taiwanese languages. So this platform is capable of reaching a wide variety of people in many places, across many fields.
Furthermore, the Hakka class and the two Austronesian language classes had more than thirty students sign up for them. The Austronesian classes in particular attracted many linguists from around the world who are studying these languages, with the most distant attendee from Australia. This should make us reevaluate the way Taiwan interacts with the modern world because the extent to which foreigners from different fields are interested in the internal workings of Taiwan’s culture has exceeded both our expectations and the interest of many Taiwanese. Anecdotally, when I taught Taiwanese history at Paris Cité University, I found that almost 25 students of the 60 or so in the class were extremely interested in studying Hakka.
What can be seen is that quite a large number of students, both in Taiwan and otherwise, were happy to be able to study Taiwanese languages in more depth on such a platform, they’ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity.
All the students I’ve met have shown a great deal of interest in Taiwan, but I don’t ‘promote’ Taiwan. In my classes, I don’t place any special emphasis at all on what makes Taiwan “good,” because as an academic, I have to maintain some objectivity. I often say that if someone keeps telling you or trying to convince you that one particular place is amazing, a certain culture is great, that’s a red flag. This behaviour is more like someone trying to sell you a product, and they aren’t giving an objective evaluation. That can be scary. You won’t ever really know what you like or dislike until you experience it for yourself, so I simply encourage students to travel to Taiwan or other places and experience for themselves.
In light of this, what has stood out to me in recent years is actually how many students don’t speak out of biased passion in expressing their feelings towards Taiwan, but instead discuss their own observations, experiences and impressions of Taiwan. They even tell me what new languages or words they’ve learned in Taiwan, instead of believing that they can understand the traditional Taiwanese perspective merely through Mandarin or English. They feel that after starting to use Taiwanese languages, their personal relationships grow closer, and they have more opportunities to see and experience things, which wouldn’t have been there with only Mandarin or English. This has been most surprising and encouraging for me!
5. Can you describe some of your proudest achievements at Inalco?
If I had to highlight some areas where I feel I’m slowly making progress, it would be these:
1. The establishment of Taiwan studies at Inalco; it has given France one more educational and research intermediary through which to come into contact with Taiwan.
2. The language wall set up by Inalco in June of 2024. The names of all 120+ languages taught at the school are written on the wall, and the characters for “Taiwanese” (台語) and the French “le taïwanais” are now there as well, showing how important we believe this language to be. This sense of linguistic awareness and action actually preceded the discussion in Taiwan. I look forward to the day that Hakka and Taiwanese Austronesian languages are also placed there.
3. The creativity and talent which students have shown in Taiwanese language classes in recent years. When I teach these languages, I’m always searching for ways to make language learning more diverse, more connected with the world, and more creatively stimulating. Hence, I’m always trying to combine different structures, programs, and media spaces to think about these issues with my students. At the same time, I emphasize the “flipped classroom” and “plus learning” mechanism, so I set up a Youtube channel called Parlons de Taïwan (做伙講臺灣). So far, we have three series planned: Apprenez moi le taïwanais (教我說臺語, Teach Me Taiwanese), Apprenz vous le taïwanas (教你們說臺語, Teach You Taiwanese), and Apprenons ensemble une chanson taïwanaise (教你們一首臺語歌, Let’s Learn a Taiwanese Song). Through our discussions, each student finds their own area of interest and builds confidence in dealing with whatever arises. Although these classes can’t teach students how to film, edit, or produce a video, the structure of the classes does provide for students learning how to deal with difficulties and complete tasks on their own. Besides that, the flipped classroom allows students to find their own way of expressing what they’ve learned, which deepens their own relationship with the class material. It also gives students the voice to share whatever it is they want to share and how they feel about it. To be able to do this in just one year, that is, two semesters, only 36 hours in class, is something that I do feel proud of, and I’m grateful that my students have also been willing to give different learning methods a try.
4. At the Centre for East Asian Linguistic Research, Taiwan studies is designed to connect with other departments, which provides many more opportunities for dialogue, and doesn’t confine itself to the Taiwan studies framework of things directly related to Taiwan. I try to prompt a different consideration of questions through thematic targeting strategies. For instance, on the topic of what we call a country’s ‘national language,’ we discuss the term “Taiwanese,” then invite scholars who have conducted research on similar examples in other countries (such as in India) to share their experiences. This kind of discussion allows students and scholars who didn’t know anything about Taiwan to grasp something of the breadth and scope of Taiwan, while at the same time, it serves as a platform for the experience of Taiwan to become the experience of the world.
As a Taiwanese person developing Taiwan studies abroad, it is actually very difficult because one has to face centrism and pragmatism in foreign societies, while also dealing with criticism from within the overseas Taiwanese community.
6. What advice do you have for other Taiwan Studies programs or centres around the world?
Every Taiwan studies centre is an achievement in itself, and has its own unique qualities, so I can’t offer advice, only appreciation. I thank these Taiwan study programs and centres for wanting to develop Taiwan studies with us.
I would like to once again thank Nikky Lin, Khoo Hui-lu, and all the staff at the NTNU International Taiwan Studies Center. Their Taiwan Studies Center has been a leader and a partner for us at Inalco. We now stand as a contact point for their International Taiwan Studies Center in France.
I want to express my gratitude to NMTL for helping Inalco to develop many Franco-Taiwan cooperative projects based on Taiwan literature. I also want to thank National Kaohsiung Normal University for giving us the opportunity to develop online Hakka and Taiwanese Austronesian language courses.Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank the National Science Council for its recognition, which has allowed Taiwan studies at Inalco to join with contemporary Taiwanese society and culture on its “road to the world.” I look forward to the day when the experience of Taiwan becomes the experience of the world.