Research & Reflections

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Research & Reflections

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Tag: English

Integrating Global Curricula: Reflections on Taiwan

Steve Varela August 23, 2017

    I recently discovered that I indeed had something in common with the esteemed Paul Krugman, the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Not surprisingly, it has to do with Taiwan. My recent visit back to the island brought back to mind many of the reasons why my family and I grappled with leaving in the first place, yet they also put a smile on my face and cemented the adoring image we have always had whenever the thoughts of Formosa, The Beautiful Island, came up. First, a little background: We came to Taiwan just after marrying in order to conduct research and collect primary data for my dissertation on international negotiation. It was a similar story that some may recall from the old TV show Gilligan’s Island about a disjointed group that planned on a spending a few fun hours somewhere in the tropics. My brief, research-oriented “semester,” surprisingly and unsurprisingly, turned into nearly four engaging years getting to know people, teaching, exploring the curious minds of my students, and sharing some Chicago culture with the freedom seeking Confucians. Many great once-in-a-lifetime experiences would ensure that I could only dream about: like seeking true meaning when

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Wild, Tame, and In-Between: Traditional Agricultural Knowledge of Taiwan Indigenous People

Pei-Lin Yu 余琲琳 August 23, 2017

Introduction and Background      Many of us would agree that Senator J. William Fulbright’s vision of “a world with a little more knowledge and a little less conflict” will feature healthy ecosystems, appreciation of cultural diversity, and of course, delicious food. However, the world has been moving in the wrong direction over the past century. Today, 75% of the world’s plant food is made up of only 12 species. As of 2010, three (rice, maize, and wheat) provided nearly 60 percent of the calories and proteins that humans derive from plants (F.A.O 2010, 1999) and this trend continues (Khoury et al. 2014). This dramatic impact on the world’s agro-biodiversity is accompanied by accelerating environmental degradation, the loss of diverse cultural understandings and appreciation of food, and an increasingly bland globalized menu – one that isn’t even very healthy.      Luckily, diverse culture and food have an ancient and fascinating history in Taiwan. Hunting and fishing practices stretch back to Paleolithic times, and the earliest farming of rice and millet date to Neolithic pioneers who likely migrated to Taiwan from across the Taiwan Strait around 6,000 years ago (Chang and Goodenough 1996, Li 2013, Tsang 2005). Growing from these

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American Literature & Creative Writing in Taiwan

Robert Davidson 戴維特 April 19, 2017

Introduction      I had the pleasure to serve as a Visiting Professor in the Foreign Languages and Literature Department at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan, 2015-2016. I taught undergraduate and graduate classes in creative writing and American literature, with a special focus on Asian American literature.       My teaching in fall 2015 was rewarding, but also challenging. I did not keep a formal teaching log that term. In the hopes of becoming an increasingly effective classroom teacher, I committed to keeping a teaching log in spring 2016. After every class session, I typed up a short entry on what happened in the class that day—the texts we discussed, the strong points in discussion, what worked or didn’t work, areas for improvement, and so on. My primary aim was to reflect on how to work most effectively with East Asian students who are second language learners and, in many cases, largely unfamiliar with more nuanced aspects of U.S. history, culture, and society. While edited for length and clarity, I tried to keep these reflections as unvarnished and “fresh” as possible, hopefully conveying a sense of my experience. Please note that this essay was submitted before the end of the

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Creating Structured Data for Online Bios

Marcia Lei Zeng 曾蕾 April 19, 2017

Introduction       The study aims to define an effective method and framework for describing online biographical sketches using structured data, or, in a broad sense, “metadata” – the structured, encoded data that describe characteristics of information-bearing entities. Using artists as an example, the most widely seen structured data can be found in two primary spots on the web: (1) the “knowledge graph” provided by search engines when one searches for an artist, and (2) the “info-box” which appears on the right side of a Wikipedia article for an artist. However, in order for a knowledge graph or info-box to exist, the individual’s life has to be well-documented in a Wikipedia article or in a dedicated record in Wikidata (formerly Freebase) knowledge base. The online biographical sketches, or “bios,” that have become a very popular publishing format online are the focus of this study. Recognized biographies in the informational medium of published books, dedicated special journal issues, documentary films, drama and biographical movies, etc. were not considered since they are usually already covered by Wikipedia and search engines’ knowledge graphs. The creator of an online biography can be anyone who uses webpages to record and interpret a particular human

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Exploring the Art and the Science at Stanford

Jui-Fen Lu盧瑞芬 April 19, 2017

If I had to use just one word to describe my year-long sabbatical leave as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford, it would be “fruitful” on both the art and the science fronts. The Science      I am a health economist and my research interests in recent years have focused on the economics of the health systems in the Asia-Pacific region. The Center for East Asian Studies and Dr. Karen Eggleston at the Asia Health Policy Program, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford, have jointly hosted my visit from August 2015 to July 2016.      In light of the significance of chronic disease, a major driver to of cost growth, the main research question in my proposed study to be addressed is: that how does Taiwan tackle the management of chronic disease under National Health Insurance (NHI) compared to the other high-income economies in the Asia-Pacific? More specifically, two primary research goals in this research proposal are: (1) to assess “value for money” (productivity) of chronic disease management in different health system settings; and (2) to give evidence-based policy advice to help prepare healthcare systems for aging populations

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The Ignored Inequality: Affective Inequality

Chien-Hsing Wang 王千倖 April 19, 2017

We live in a world where inequality permeates all aspects of our lives, where we are indifferent to the emotional burdens of others, where we are victimized by fear, anger, resentment, and hatred. Economic, cultural, and political inequalities widen the gap between the rich and poor, and unemployment rates remain high in many countries (e.g., the United States and Taiwan). Such inequalities result in affective inequality which, in a vicious cycle, exacerbates these economic, cultural, and political inequalities (Lynch, Baker, & Lyons, 2009). While slogans of fighting for justice have become ubiquitous, emotional depletion has been ignored (Lynch & Lyons, 2009b; Lynch, Lyons, & Cantillon, 2009b; O’Brien, 2009; Stevenson, 2015). We are asked to pretend that we are not wounded (Enright, 2015b). A seventh-grader’s spoken word poetry entitled “Behind My Smile” gives us a vivid expression (Fiore, 2015, p. 817):                               Some wear fake smiles                              Behind those is pain                              How do I know?            

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Teaching in a Buddhist Pure Land: A Fulbright scholar on Dharma Drum Mountain

Barbara Reed 李柏嵐 April 19, 2017

For one semester, I taught and conducted research in a Buddhist Pure Land! I spent the 2016 fall semester on Dharma Drum Mountain, a green mountainous Buddhist community located in Jinshan District, north of Taipei. This Buddhist community includes the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, where I taught a graduate seminar on Comparative Religious Texts. The Dharma Drum Mountain is also home to a 4-year Sangha University to train Buddhist monks and nuns as well as the international headquarters of Dharma Drum organization, known as the Dharma Drum Mountain World Center for Buddhist Education and the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies. Life on a Buddhist Mountain My life on the mountain was ideal for health, contemplation, and research. I ate the simple Buddhist vegetarian meals of rice, tofu, and vegetables—eating breakfast and dinner in silent rows with everyone facing the same direction. At times, I found the Chan Buddhist practice of eating in silence a surprising relief from struggling to keep up with Chinese conversations at meals. I was welcomed to eat lunch with the faculty in their dining room, who were the only ones who spoke during noontime meals. But even there, I felt that there was a

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Research on Childhood Obesity among Preschool-age Children in Taiwan

Jyu-Lin Chen 陳姿利 December 5, 2016

     I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to be a senior research scholar working on a cross-strait research project in Taiwan and Mainland China. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated childhood obesity as a global epidemic and a major public health issue. Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile and below the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. For adults, overweight is defined as a BMI of 24 to 27.99 and obesity is a BMI of 28 or higher.      The prevalence of childhood obesity is growing fast in many developing countries, including Taiwan. Given that obesity at preschool age is associated with young adulthood obesity and young adulthood obesity is associated with adverse cardio-metabolic psychosocial outcomes, preschool years are a critically important period for developing healthy lifestyles and preventing childhood obesity. As a global health nursing researcher, this opportunity to stay in Taiwan to understand how familial and environmental factors contribute to the global obesity epidemic is one of the best investments I have ever made.

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Research and Reflections from Hualien County

Stephen Pan 潘長浩 December 1, 2016

    When I visited Taiwan in the summer of 2002, there were no direct flights between the island and mainland China, Freedom Square was still called Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Square, and the now diminutive Mitsukoshi tower was still the tallest building in Taipei. In my suitcase was a Sony Discman with electronic skip protection, along with about ten pounds of CDs with timeless hits like “Gonna make you sweat” by C+C music factory.      Though I only taught English in Taiwan for a few weeks, the experience as a college sophomore left an unexpectedly powerful impression on me. The food was great of course (I must have spent hundreds of dollars eating multiple bowls of shaved ice each day), but being in Taiwan also provided me with an invaluable ethnocultural reference point to understand interethnic relationships and minority identities outside the American context. However, one summer was far too brief, and I knew that I would need to return for a longer stay. Applying to Fulbright      Eleven years later, a viable plan to return to Taiwan was conceived while visiting Taipei as a public health Fulbright student researcher in China. All Fulbright student fellows in China

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China’s Elusive Nationhood: Ethnic, Cultural, and Civic Dimensions

Daniel Glockler 葛樂德 December 1, 2016

     Despite the ahistorical claims of those who misread “nationhood” into the millennia of history in present day Greater China, a “Chinese Nation” is a fairly recent concept. As a political ideal, its roots are found in the writings of late Qing dynasty anti-Manchu and anti-imperialist intellectuals and revolutionaries. As a “reality,” it is no older than the 20th century, and a persuasive argument has been made that national consciousness reached much of China only in the 1950’s.1 Nonetheless, the influence of “Chinese nationhood” on both China and the world should not be underestimated.  The success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in combining nationalism with anti-imperialism and anti-elitism is cited as an explanation for its civil war victory in 1949. 2 In the post-Maoism and post-global communism PRC, nationalism is cited by both Chinese leaders and outside observers as a primary pillar of regime security.      Indeed, as a cognitive political reality, Chinese nationhood seems to explain a lot.  But how does it explain itself? What are its contents? What are the values and norms embodied in the Chinese national image? Is it merely an ultra-realist and humiliation-minded ego of national scale? These questions are fascinating in part because

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