News

The International PhD Program in Taiwan and Transcultural Studies at National Chung Hsing University is hosting a two-day workshop Oct 29–30, 2026. This symposium centers on issues of identity shifts in our current world of constant flux, movement, migration, and transition. At a moment when digital connectivity promises global openness yet societies grow increasingly polarized and ultranationalist, this gathering addresses the urgent contradictions shaping our fractured world.

With the increasing rivalries we have witnessed on the geopolitical front in recent years — the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the Sino-US competition — the hostilities stoked by COVID-19, and not least the racialist antagonisms between and among nations fanned by an uncritical mob mentality, we seem to have entered into a new Cold War era. As nation-states jostle to form new alliances in the changing world order, at the same time, they continue to compete for the loyalties of citizens internally as well as exert their influence beyond national borders, appealing either through a sense of cultural affinity or otherwise rhetorical intimidation. How far have we come since the first “Chinese” Nobel Literary Prize laureate Gao Xingjian cautioned that the call for patriotism and nationalist impulses are the most reactionary of watchwords authoritarian regimes of the past and present have utilized to trick people? Our symposium seeks to examine cultural performance as a critical site for understanding transnational identities, political belonging, and resistance in contemporary Asia.

Registration Link

More specifically, our symposium:

1.⁠ ⁠Examines different “trans-”formations (transnational, transregional, transformational, translational, transcendent, transitional) and how they intersect with performance in Asia.

2.⁠ ⁠Treats performance broadly (theatre, film, media, literature, translation, visual arts, music, performance art, television) as a key site where identities are imagined, resisted, and transformed beyond rigid nation‑state frameworks.

3.⁠ ⁠Focuses on how the lingering and renewed Cold War logics shape cultural and political life in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China, and the wider Chinese diaspora.

4.⁠ ⁠Asks how artists and cultural practitioners use performance to challenge authoritarianism, ultra‑nationalism, historical amnesia, and the state’s demand for loyalty, especially amid US–China tensions, surveillance, and digital echo chambers.

The workshop will allow us an opportunity to reflect and contemplate on new directions emerging in transnational Asian studies.

Important Notice: The workshop will be conducted bilingually in English and Mandarin Chinese. Presentations and Q&A sessions may be delivered in either language, and speakers may present their slides in one language while speaking in another. All participants are warmly welcome regardless of language preference!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conveners: Wah Guan LIM 林華源, Chun Yen WANG 汪俊彥
Venue: College of Liberal Arts 815, National Chung Hsing University中興大學人文大樓815室
Dates: Oct 29–30, 2026

主辦單位：國立中興大學台灣與跨文化國際博士學位學程
協辦單位：國立中興大學台灣文學與跨國文化研究所
贊助單位：教育部高等教育深耕計畫、國家科學及技術委員會、教育部玉山青年學者計劃