The 2024 ANU Taiwan Update examined three issues at the forefront of modern, changing Taiwanese society. The keynote speaker, Tayal scholar Dr Wasiq Silan, focused on social programs run by and for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, Brian Hioe will discuss the connection between the Sunflower Movement and the recent Bluebird Movement, and we also screened the multiple prize-winning documentary And Miles to Go Before I Sleep, which concerns the police shooting of a Vietnamese migrant worker. Finally, one of Australia’s foremost Taiwan experts, Dr Craig Smith discussed how the various images of Taiwan in the west — exotic island, oppressed colony, capitalist factory, progressive society — have been shaped and propagated.

In the 2023 ANU Taiwan Update, scholars and commentators grappled with the place of Taiwan in the world, how the Taiwanese government, media, and people deal with the actions of their vast neighbour hovering to their west, the internal challenges of a vibrant, complex, and changing country, and what the future may bring for, arguably, Asia’s most progressive democracy.

January 2024 saw elections for Taiwan’s presidency and for Taiwan’s parliament, the legislative yuan. Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party president, is coming to the end of her two terms, so in May 2024, a new president will be inaugurated. Whether that election will see a second DPP president, or a return to KMT rule, or perhaps the first president from the Taiwan People’s Party, Taiwan’s politics will change. Apart from the cross-strait relationship, the new president will have to face economic issues, some of which resonate with Australia’s experience: that of a slowing from the post-pandemic mini-boom, Chinese trade boycotts, and an aging population. At the same time, Taiwan continues to flourish culturally with writers, filmmakers, musicians, and artists of all kinds engaging with Taiwan’s present and the sometimes overwhelming legacy of colonialism and authoritarianism.

For Australians, Taiwan typically figures only as an issue in the geo-politics of the East Asian region, as one half of “Cross-Strait Relations”. Yet, it is a fully functioning democracy and an independent state in all but name that can be studied in its own right. Taiwan has almost the same population as Australia but is about half the size of Tasmania. Like Australia, its indigenous population plays a significant part in politics and society, and Taiwan is also moving towards legalising same-sex marriage. This course provides an overview of contemporary Taiwan’s society and politics while also paying attention to the historical events that formed its present shape and which remain live issues today.