Courtesy announcement of the first Prof Chwei-Liang Chiou Memorial Lecture on Taiwan Democracy held by Macquarie University
Date: Thu., 30 June 2022
Time: 11:00 am – 12:15 pm AEST
Modality: Online
Registration is required. The link will be sent one day before the webinar. https://ChiouMemorialLecture.eventbrite.com.au
“Caught between Empires: Democracy and Nation-state Formation in Taiwan” by Dr Rwei-ren Wu (吳叡人)
The Inaugural Prof Chwei-Liang Chiou Memorial Lecture on Taiwan Democracy is supported by Macquarie University in collaboration with Lowy Institute in memory of Prof Chwei-Liang Chiou AM (1938-2021). Recognising Prof Chiou’s strong belief in Taiwan's democracy and friendship between Taiwan and Australia, the annual Prof Chwei-Liang Chiou Memorial Lecture was created by his wife Flora, students and friends from Australia and Taiwan.
Dr Rwei-ren Wu (吳叡人), Associate Research Fellow of the Institute of Taiwan History in Academia Sinica (Taiwan), will deliver a talk entitled “Caught between Empires: Democracy and Nation-State Formation in Taiwan”. In Dr Wu’s presentation, he will review the historical development and transition of Taiwan from a colony to Asia’s most vibrant democratic society. As the Taiwan Strait emerges as one of the world’s geopolitical flashpoints, what does history contribute to our understanding of Taiwan’s position today? To better understand the search for democracy and nation-state formation in Taiwan over hundreds of years, this lecture delineates a schematic explanatory framework for Taiwan’s nation-state formation and political history. Dr Wu argues that the three long-term historical processes of settler indigenization, social integration and the accumulative formation of state institutions that had taken place since the sixteenth century converged with the democratization of the 1990s, eventually resulting in the contemporary form of the Taiwanese state. A case of state-formation that took place at what Rokkan and Urwin called the “interface” between multiple empires or geopolitical centers, Taiwan’s nation-state formation, albeit largely completed, is nevertheless facing new threats of disintegration under the pressures of the imperializing China.
Background information about the Prof Chwei-Liang Chiou Memorial Lecture
2021年3月13日我們最敬愛的邱垂亮教授因病辭世，儘管長居澳洲，仍心繫故鄉台灣，即使晚年罹癌也筆耕不倦，他曾說「我寫故我在」，2020年中國將他列為「頑固台獨」，他卻自封自己「是頑固的民主，不是頑固的台獨」，足以為他一生的最佳註腳。
邱垂亮教授於1938年出生在台灣苗栗縣，台大外文系畢業後，獲美國加州大學博士學位，1971年起任澳洲昆士蘭大學政治系教授。邱教授身上展現了台灣多元文化的雜揉性格，他生於苗栗鄉下，在台南山上成長，有客家人、原住民血統，會說客語、閩南語、國語與英語。他原本立志當文學家，最後到美國改念政治，筆下不寫文學改針砭政治，成為享譽國際的政治學者。
邱教授自美學成後，應澳洲昆士蘭大學政治系邀請至澳洲任教，開啟了旅居澳洲的生活。1970年代，台灣處於威權時期，他在由康寧祥等人創辦的《台灣政論》發表文章，因一篇「兩種心向」賈禍，雜誌被迫停刊，自己也成為黑名單之一。邱教授在澳洲昆斯蘭大學政治系執教40多年，經常在國際研討會上為台灣發聲，前總統陳水扁執政時期聘為國策顧問，2003年並獲澳洲聯邦政府頒發「澳洲建國百年特殊貢獻勳章」。
今年適逢邱教授辭世一週年，我們發起第一屆「邱垂亮教授台灣民主紀念講座」，將於6月30號早上澳洲時間十一點邀請中研院台史所吳叡人教授以專題”Caught between Empires: Democracy and Nation-State Formation in Taiwan”進行英文線上演講，不僅為了追思邱教授一生為台灣民主自由的奉獻，更希望傳遞他留給後輩摯愛台灣的精神。