Cultural Insights
文化洞見

Contemporary Aboriginal. The Mixing.
For my Fulbright grant I chose a topic of immense richness: the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. What I found exceeded my every expectation. I have

Translation of “Enlightenment” in Late Qing and Republican China Political Thought
My research as a Fulbright grantee at Harvard University concerns the appropriation of political terminology from the West in late Qing and Republican China. Here

A Midyear Reflection on the State of my Research
I do a lot of reading; it’s part of my job description as a graduate student. I read all types of works: newspaper

Notes from a Sufi Shrine in Sindh, Pakistan
The heat of the day had receded as we walked into the shrine after ‘isha, the final evening prayers. The marble ground felt cool

On Shamanism, Positivism, and Shifting One’s Frame of Reference
An important skill that I have adopted for living overseas in a different culture is shifting my frame of reference to accommodate new

Chinese Buddhist Poetry and Academic Lineages in Taiwan: Part Two of Two
In this two-part essay, I survey two important academic lineages in Taiwan and their contributions to the study of Chinese Buddhist poetry. In

Chinese Buddhist Poetry and Academic Lineages in Taiwan: Part One of Two
Chinese Buddhist poetry and literature remains largely unstudied in Western academia. The study of Buddhist poetry requires facility with the disparate fields of

Children’s Literature Ambassadors: Advocates of the 1960s: Munro Leaf and Helen R. Sattley
This research period, so far, has been a fruitful one, thanks to the generous support of the Fulbright Taiwan Foundation for Scholarly Exchange.

Of Fishing Boats and Comfort Boats: Playing with Gender Ideology in A’tolan a Niyaro
“If they won’t go on the boats, then we’ll just go fishing, go far oceaning, ourselves!” says the wife of a member