Taiwan studies

Taiwan studies is a multi-disciplinary academic division of area studies (a part of East Asian studies) focused on studying Taiwan and the people on/in/of Taiwan both on its own and in comparison with other world areas. Academia Sinica, Taiwan's national level research institute, officially inaugurated its Institute of Taiwan History in 2004 following a long exploratory period beginning in 1986. Taiwan studies departments and centers have been established in numerous universities around the world (see below for a list) and key Taiwan studies organizations have been established in North America (NATSA), Europe (EATS), and Japan (JATS). The first World Congress of Taiwan Studies (WCTS) was hosted by Taiwan's Academia Sinica on April 26–28, 2012, in Taipei, Taiwan. More recently, the People's Republic of China has begun to establish its own controversial version of Taiwan studies in the United States via its Confucius Institutes.

As with all area studies, funding and interest in Taiwan studies has largely followed American and other nations' changing political interests. Japanese interest in Taiwan studies preceded significant Western interest in the island and its diverse set of people beginning as a part of maintaining its own colonial interests there (Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895-1945), and continuing in a post-colonial mode following the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China (ROC) following its defeat in World War II. An early peak of interest by Western scholars in studying Taiwan occurred following the defeat of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese civil war and its subsequent retreat to Taiwan beginning in 1947. With China's Communist Party taking power in mainland China, the mainland quickly became off-limits for the vast majority of Western sinologists (exceptions included William Hinton, author of Fan Shen). This closing off, in concert with the United States' strong political and military support for Taiwan and British Hong Kong as bulwarks against Communist expansion, ushered in a "golden age" for the study of China beyond China, including increasing studies of "Chinese" in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Following diplomatic shifts of recognition away from the Taiwan-based ROC towards the China-based PRC beginning in the late 1970s and picking up speed with China's reform and opening, academics once again began to shift their focus on China to the mainland. Western academic interest in Taiwan continued at a lower rate with a relatively strong focus on the politics of Taiwan-China-United States relations across the Taiwan Straits.

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