A Brief History of
the North America Taiwan Studies Conference (NATSC)

Following the rapid transformation of Taiwan*s political, economic, social, and cultural developments during the last decade, one can certainly observe the growing academic interest being devoted to Taiwan studies, both from Taiwanese scholars and Western scholars. As a result, a substantial scholarly exchange channel was desperately needed for the communication between Taiwanese and Western scholars, so as to enrich the germinating Taiwan studies with both historical and comparative perspectives as well as empirical and theoretical perspectives. It was for this reason that 47 Taiwanese young scholars and graduate students from 20 U.S. universities initiated the Preparatory Council for the North America Taiwan Studies Conference, immediately after a Taiwan studies conference held at Yale University, on April 23, 1994.

The Preparatory Council aims to promote Taiwan studies in general, to enhance interaction between the academia of Taiwan and the North America, and to facilitate communication among graduate students and scholars concerning and conducting Taiwan studies. The primary two objectives of the Preparatory Council are the holding of an annual Taiwan Studies Conference in North America and the publishing of the research papers collected from the annual conferences. The First and Second Annual Conferences were held at Yale University on June 2-4, 1995 and at Michigan State University on May 24-26, 1996, respectively. A total of 48 qualified papers were presented in the two conferences, with the topic areas including (1) Taiwanese history and culture, (2) political and economic transformation, (3) social structure, social movements, and social policies, (4) Taiwan-China relations and China studies related to Taiwan. Approximately two hundred people have so far participated in the first two conferences, whose fields of speciality have included history, sociology, political science, economics, law, anthropology, cultural studies, religious studies, literature, education, etc.

A content analysis of the 48 presented papers have revealed the following primary areas of focus of contemporary academic interest in Taiwan studies.

1. Taiwanese history: 6 articles covered Taiwan*s political, social, religious, and military history, from the later years of the Ching Dynasty, the Japanese colonization, to the post-war ROC period.
2. ethnicity and nationalism: 7 articles focused on Taiwanese aborigines, overseas Formosans, social elite and national identity, the 228 Incident and nation-building, democratization and nationalism.
3. social structure and social movements: 8 articles were related to state corporatism and labor movement, gender and labor*s social history, married women*s working patterns, gender roles and housing arrangements, critique of Taiwan*s feminism, physicians and civil society, social classes and political liberalization, and environmental movements.
4. political parties and state institutions: 7 articles concentrated on electoral systems and local factionalism, social cleavages and party competition, political elites and democratization, constitutional design and democratizatic consolidation.
5. state and development: 5 articles covered the nature of the authoritarian state, a challenge to the developmental state, the state and professional power of medicine, transformation of the export industry, and dynamic analysis of the industrial structure.
6. social and public policies: 6 articles focused on health policy, education, intercity transportation system, national parks, environmental protection, and non-profit organizations.
7. literature and cinema: 6 articles covered Yeh Shi-tao*s literary discourse and Taiwanese consciousness, comparison of Wu Cho-liu and Dong Fang Pai*s work, anti-Communist literature in the 1950s, contemporary literature of the 1990s, the positioning of Taiwan in contemporary cinema.
8. religious studies: 3 articles covered the development of Buddhism, Yiguan Dao and capitalism, and Formosan Christians and Taiwanese self-determination.
9. Taiwan-China relations: 6 articles focused on Taiwan Strait crisis in the 1950s, ROC*s defense policy and national security, ROC*s pragmatic diplomacy, Taiwan*s sovereignty in international law, economic interdependence and political confrontation between Taiwan and China.

The first two annual conferences were under the sponsorship of the Taiwan Research Fund and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. The Taiwan Research Fund has been particularly enthusiastic in helping the forming of the NATSC from the start and has offered a long-term committed sponsorship to the NATSC. The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation has also offered its kind support on a year-to-year basis. The current Constitution of the Preparatory Council of the Annual North America Taiwan Studies Conference was passed at the First Annual Conference on June 4, 1995 at Yale University. So far, the NATSC has roughly 100 active members and has an up-to-date e-mail network (natsc@taiwanese.com) and homepage (http://www.natsc.org or http://trf.twrf.org.tw).

According to our Constitution, a Preparatory Council for the following year is to be elected at each annual conference, whose primary responsibilities include calling for papers, publishing presented articles, raising necessary funds, managing human resources, and keeping an updated database. The chief coordinator for the 1995 and 1996 conferences was Chia-lung Lin from Yale University and Jih-wen Lin from University of California at Los Angeles, respectively, and the current chief coordinator (President) for the 1997 conference is Chung-hsien Huang from University of Wisconsin at Madison. Currently, there are 10 members in the 1997 Preparatory Council, which include 3 professors, 5 Ph.D. candidate, and 2 Ph.D. student. The 1997 Preparatory Council has chosen the University of California at Berkeley as the 1997 Conference site and has selected a local conference manager to take charge of local administrative affairs. The names and affiliated schools of the 1997 Preparatory Council and the local manager are as follows: