The 'AI and Taiwan Studies Forum', held on 24 May 2025 at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), marked a significant moment in the development of Taiwan studies as a field ready to confront what Naomi Alderman (2025) describes as a contemporary information crisis-a period in which digital platforms, datafication, and algorithmic systems fundamentally reshape how societies understand themselves and each other. Convened by the International Taiwan Studies Center (ITSC) and coorganised with the International Journal of Taiwan Studies (IJTS), the forum brought together scholars of multiple disciplinary backgrounds, technologists, artists, and policy thinkers to consider the many ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) intersects with Taiwan's democracy, culture, education, and global presence. The meeting also celebrated the unveiling of the ITSC Project international journal of taiwan studies (2026) 1-8 brill.com/ijts

Abstract Food plays a significant role in both social lives and the construction of identity. Especially in regard to diasporic communities, food brings with it not just memories and traditions but also culinary practices. The act of cooking, serving, and consuming traditional foods becomes a powerful means of preserving cultural identity in a new society. Based on findings from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Taiwan in early 2024, this article explores the intricate relationship between food, identity, and the representation of the Tibetan diasporic community in Taiwan. Focusing on Tibetan restaurants in Taiwan, it highlights how the culinary practices of ethnic businesses play a critical role in maintaining cultural heritage and negotiating identity.

Abstract Mainland Chinese director Wang Quan’an’s Apart Together , which won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay in 2010, tackles the issue of cross-Strait relations by telling the story of Kuomintang veteran Liu Yansheng’s return to mainland China after nearly 40 years of separation from his wife and son. Shanghainese is the main language of the film, a dialect that is used to suggest a local attitude towards the national issue. While earlier Chinese films on similar themes often emphasise the cultural and emotional ties between Taiwan and China, in Wang’s film Liu is characterised as an unwelcome Taiwanese guest, an intruder in his wife’s Chinese family. This essay argues that Wang’s Apart Together contests the People’s Republic of China’s official discourse of cross-Strait reunification by demonstrating the cultural and identity divisions between the Taiwanese character and his Chinese family. Wang provides an alternative perspective on the ‘Taiwan issue’, showing that ordinary people’s experience of cross-Strait reunion might be painful and problematic.

Abstract This article argues that Taiwan’s distinctive historical position—at the centre of multiple overlapping colonial jurisdictions and historiographical traditions—furnishes an important opportunity to consider how indigenous pasts and experiences themselves played a role in disrupting or redirecting historical narratives of global connection. It examines texts by Ming travellers Chen Di ( Dongfan ji , 1603) and Zhang Xie ( Dong Xi yang kao , 1603); Dominican writers, including Jacinto Esquivel (1632); and later histories of early modern Japanese expansion and the dissemination of the Sinkan Manuscripts (Murakami, 1897, 1933). What all these foreign observers of Taiwan had in common was their struggle to integrate Taiwanese indigenous pasts into their existing grids of historical knowledge. By focusing on this ‘historiography of the other’, the article challenges commonplace assumptions regarding pre-modern foreign relations and indigenous forms of social organisation, showing how Taiwan can play a role in challenging operating foci of global history.

Abstract This article discusses critical issues explored in the Taiwanese ‘Netflix Originals’ series, Wave Makers (dir. Lin Chun-yang, 2023) and highlights their real-life implications in Taiwan and other societies of Chinese heritage. The fact that the series has triggered Taiwan’s belated #MeToo movement showcases the profound impact it has had on Taiwanese audiences, especially regarding conventional narratives surrounding power-based sexual violence, gender inequalities at the workplace, and attitudes towards homosexuality. Using both narrative and discourse analyses, this article unpacks such narratives by providing theoretical readings – both feminist and constructionist – for the series’ various plots and character transformations. Divulged in this process are the hidden social and ideological mechanisms within the Taiwanese context that have perpetuated gender inequalities at the workplace and in the family.