Dr. phil. Jens Damm is Lecturer at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Institute of Chinese Studies. From February 2025 he will be the visiting chair of Taiwan Studies at the University of Leiden. He was an Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chang Jung University, Tainan, Taiwan (2009-2019) and an Assistant Professor at Freie Universität Berlin until 2009. His research interests include the new media and the Internet, the Taiwanese and Chinese diasporas, and gender studies. He was also PI of “China's Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Non-state Actors”, 2015-2017 (GARC) at the Oriental Institute Prague.

(2024) Politics and the Media, in: Gunter Schubert (Hrsg.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan, Routledge (accepted)
(2024) Contested and Negotiated Discourses: Media Framing of Homosexuality Issues in Taiwan, in: Ming-yeh Rawnsley and Yiben Ma (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media. Routledge (accepted). 
(2023) With Simona Grano. „Ein Land, zwei Systeme“: Hongkong und Taiwan. In Nele Noesselt (ed.) China: Geographien einer Weltmacht. Springer. 
(2023) With Julia Marinaccio. Taiwan’s Enduring Controversy on Absentee Voting. Journal of Democracy (under review). 
(2021) China and Germany after the 2021 Election: Between Continuity and Increasing Confrontation. In Simona Grano and David Chiavacci (eds.) International Responses to US-China Strategic Competition: Neutrality vs. Taking-Sides. Palgrave.
(2020) China’s Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin: The Impact of Transnational and Local, in J. Damm, O. Klimeš, G. Rawnsley, J. Ptáčková (eds.) China’s Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin: The Impact of Transnational and Local, Palgrave.
(2019) With H. Neddermann (eds.) Intercultural Dialogue across Borders (Berliner China-Hefte 51)
(2019) China and the Ethnic Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Discourses, Perceptions and Cultural Diplomacy, Berliner-Hefte 51, 23-42
(2019) China and the Ethnic Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Discourses, Perceptions and Cultural Diplomacy, Berliner-Hefte 51, 23-42
(2018) The impact of the Taiwanese LGBTQ movement in mainland China, in C. Storm (Hrsg.) Connecting Taiwan: Participation – Integration – Impacts. Ed. by Carsten Storm. London: Routledge. (Routledge Research on Taiwan Series).
(2017) Social Media in China: Between an emerging civil society and commercialization), in: Koichi Iwabuchi, Eva Tsai and Chris Berry (Hrsg.), London: Routledge Handbook of East Asian Popular Culture, 158-167.
(2016) The Contemporary Political and Public Discourse on the Xinhai Revolution in Taiwan in the Context of the Centennial Celebration of the ROC, Berliner China-Hefte/Chinese History and Society 47 122-138.
(2016) Politics and the Media, in: Gunter Schubert (Hrsg.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan, London: Routledge, 184-197.
(2016) From Psychoanalysis to AIDS: The Early Contradictory Approaches to Gender and Sexuality and the Recourse to American Discourses during Taiwan’s Societal Transformation in the Early 1980s, In: Howard Chiang et al, Perverted Taiwan, London, Routledge.
(2016) An Outline of LGBTQ and Tongzhi Discourses in Taiwan: From the Re-Invented Confucianism of the 1950s to a Glocal Queer Discourse Today. In: Katja Levy (Hrsg.) Festschrift für Mechthild Leutner. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
(2015) With Lai Yingtai (2015) The Internet in China: Cultural, political, and social dimensions (1980s–2000s), Chinese diaspora online Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 176–183. 
(2015) Communities online. The Internet in China: Cultural, political, and social dimensions (1980s–2000s), Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 184-196.

He is also the author of Homosexualität und Gesellschaft in Taiwan: 1945 bis 1995 [Homosexuality and Society in Taiwan: 1945 to 1995] (PhD) and has co-edited a range of works, for example, (2019) (Co-editor) Transnational Sites of China's Cultural Diplomacy- Central Asia, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe Compared, Palgrave (in preparation), (2018) With Mechthild Leutner and Niu Dayong (Eds.) China's Interaction the World: Historical and Contemporary Aspects, LIT 2018China Networks (2009, with Mechthild Leutner), Postmodern China (2008, with Andreas Steen), Taiwanese Identity from Domestic, Regional and Global Perspectives (2007 with Gunter Schubert), Chinese Cyberspaces (2006 with Simona Thomas), Chinesische Literatur: Zum 70. Geburtstag von Eva Müller [Chinese Literature: On the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Eva Müller] (with Mechthild Leutner 2005). His most recent publications include the edited volume Taiwanese Identity in the 21st Century (ed. by Gunter Schubert and Jens Damm, Routledge, London, New York, 2012) and European Perspectives on Taiwan (VS Springer 2012, co-edited with Paul Lim).

Background
The lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan in 1987 marked a pivotal moment in the country's history, catalyzing democratization, liberalization, pluralization, and globalization. However, the transitional period from the late 1970s to 1987 witnessed societal and political upheavals, fostering an atmosphere of uncertainty that facilitated public discussions of LGBTQI topics in popular media, literature, and academia. This laid the groundwork for the LGBTQI movement, which emerged as a latecomer among social movements. Initially, discussions of LGBTQI issues were confined to expert-authored reports published in newspapers and magazines by psychologists and doctors. In the mid-1990s to early 2000s, as Taiwan's democratization accelerated, LGBTQI issues gained prominence in feminist and lifestyle magazines. Taiwan's mass media increasingly covered international developments such as gender mainstreaming and the growing recognition of LGBTQI partnerships, which were subsequently reported in mainstream outlets.
Under the Ma administration, social movements advocated for broader social changes by lobbying the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) through media publications. Simultaneously, internet platforms fueled activism and pressure to introduce marriage equality legislation. During President Tsai Ing-wen's administration, mainstream and LGBTQI media engaged in debates about the legalization of same-sex marriage. Advocates and opponents utilized media platforms to articulate their viewpoints, with the latter briefly succeeding in the 2018 referendum. Following the legalization of same-sex marriage, media coverage portrayed Taiwan as Asia's most progressive society, with LGBTQI issues becoming central to cultural diplomacy.

Project Description
This project aims to contrast two contested media discourses surrounding transformative LGBTQI developments: the "AIDSphobia" narratives of the 1980s and the recent marriage equality debates. Employing critical discourse analysis of texts and interviews with stakeholders, including journalists and politicians, the project will examine media institutions as gatekeepers of discursive resources. In the 1980s, expert-authored reports initiated public discussions of LGBTQI issues in popular media and academia. However, activist Chi Chia-wei challenged the prevailing AIDSphobia narrative, leading to the increased visibility of LGBTQI topics in feminist and lifestyle magazines in the 1990s. Under President Tsai, mainstream and LGBTQI media engaged in debates about legalizing same-sex marriage, with advocates and opponents utilizing media to argue their positions. Despite the temporary success of opponents in the 2018 referendum, post-legalization media coverage has emphasized Taiwan's status as Asia's most progressive society.
The project will investigate whether Taiwan's media meets the standards required for providing a democratic forum. Media pluralism alone may not be sufficient; independence, civil society engagement, and internal norms guiding practices are also crucial.
Procedure
The research will involve critical discourse analysis of media representations and qualitative interviews guided by media framing theory. The analysis will encompass LGBTQI coverage in both traditional and alternative Taiwanese media, as well as English-language social media channels that promote Taiwan internationally through LGBTQI issues. The findings will be presented in two papers for the International Journal of Taiwan Studies and China Perspectives.

Timeline
September to December 2024: Media analysis, initial Taiwan interviews (following paper presentation at the 2023 Tainan Area Studies Conference) with organizations such as Tongzhi Hotline, Presbyterian Church, and Lala Alliance.
Preliminary findings were presented at the 2023 EATS conference; a related publication was accepted in the Handbook of Chinese Media 2nd Edition.