Reflections on the Polarization of Politics in Taiwan

Stanford ChinaRains (http://chinarains.blogspot.com)

Diminishing of the Middle?

Reflections on the Polarization of Politics in Taiwan

Speaker : Maukuei, Chang

张茂桂

Research Fellow of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

President of Taiwanese Sociological Association

Working language: Chinese

Thursday, May 29, 7-9pm

Nairobi Room, Graduate Community Center

750 Escondido Road, Stanford, CA 94305

Outline of the Talk:

Political polarization in democratic regimes seems to be a common theme. Routine partisan competitions involving regional-cultural, ethnic-racial, gender, income-class, religious differences can become so intensified that they split the society into rivalry camps. This talk will address this issue in Taiwan’s democratization process using the data from waves of surveys. After studying different indicators Prof. Chang believes that the middle-of-roaders have not disappeared or declined in past few years even during the time when the Blue camp and the Green Camp fight against each other intensely. He also finds that the middle-of-roaders may come from the dissolving process of the KMT.

Bio. Of Dr. Chang:

Mau-kuei Chang is Research Fellow of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica; Chair Guest Professor, Department of Sociology, SooChow University (2008); President of Taiwanese Sociological Association (serving 2008-2009). He received his Ph.D. degree of sociology from Purdue University in 1984, and has visited U.C. Berkeley and McGill University as Fulbright and exchange scholar; and has been a Visiting Chair professor at Leiden University of the Netherlands. He has served to various academic journals both in and out of Taiwan. His academic research and teaching interests include social movement studies, identity politics, and ethnic and nationalism. His recent English publications include The Movement to Indigenize Social Sciences in Taiwan (2005), Taiwan’s Nationalistic Politics and its Difficult Status-quo (2006), and has an edited volume (with Zheng Yong-nian) in Chinese titled Social Movement Studies on both Sides of Taiwan Strait (2002).

Ling Yang and Hao Yan
ChinaRains at Stanford University

New Developments of Taiwan Politics

Stanford ChinaRains (http://chinarains.blogspot.com)

New Developments of Taiwan Politics and

Relations of Taiwan, Mainland China and U.S.

台湾政治新发展及两岸，中美与台美关系

Huang, Ching-lung

黄 清 龙

Vice President of the China Times in Taiwan

Visiting Fellow of Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies of Brookings Institution

Thursday, April 24, 6:30-8:30pm

Room 313, School of Education

485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305

Location Map: http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=03-300

Working language: Chinese

Dinner or pizza or snacks will be served depending on the headcount,

Please RSVP to the link below by Wednesday noon

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=e9EBdFXsiD4sa2r80SCvyw_3d_3d

Outline of the Talk:

From a review of the recent presidential election in Taiwan, Mr. Huang will share with us his insights in the development of Taiwan politics, its relations with the mainland and the U.S., and the stories of political leaders in Taiwan.

Bio. Of Mr. Huang:

Mr. Huang is the vice president of Taiwan’s leading daily newspaper, the China Times, and has also served as reporter and editor-in-chief. As a distinguished journalist on politics, He is an expert on the development of media in the PRC, and his research at Brookings focuses on the role of the media in Taiwan’s democratization process.

Ling Yang and Hao Yan
ChinaRains at Stanford University