Convergence and divergence between Taiwanese and US anthropologies

• Published in: Asian anthropology Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 181 - 189
• Main Author: Huang, Shu-min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 03.07.2017
• Subjects: anthropology; Cold War; factionalism; Japanese colonialism; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1683-478X; 2168-4227
• DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2017.1346963

This article discusses three issues based on the author's experience of teaching anthropology in the US for 30 years (1975-2005), and then in Taiwan over the past decade (2006-2015), when he was heavily involved in Taiwan's anthropological education. The first issue is the positionality of anthropology in Taiwan, including the origin of anthropology as a body of transplanted knowledge or a disciplinary subject established in Taiwan's university curricula. The second issue this article will briefly comment upon is the current condition of anthropology in Taiwan in terms of teaching, faculty recruitment, and perspectives on professional development. Third, this article will discuss how and why Taiwanese anthropologists have deviated from what might be seen as the US model and subsequently gained a different type of hegemonic power in Taiwan that would actually put their intellectual masters in the US to shame. This article will close with a short, albeit optimistic, conclusion.