New Publication: Assessing the Presidency of Ma Ying-jiu in Taiwan
June 2018
Assessing the Presidency of Ma Ying-jiu in Taiwan. Hopeful Beginning, hopeless end?
André Beckershoff und Gunter Schubert (Hrsg.)
The years of the Ma Ying-jiu presidency in Taiwan were controversial from the beginning. When he came to power in 2008, Ma was considered the strongest and most popular KMT presidential candidate since Lee Teng-hui. However, his rapprochement towards China met with increasing resistance and by the time he stepped down in 2016, he enjoyed the lowest support rates of any incumbent president. What happened in between?
This book undertakes a balanced empirical assessment of the achievements and failures of the Ma Ying-jiu era. Renowned Taiwan scholars analyse the changing political environment that shaped the Ma presidency, covering important topics such as Taiwan’s evolving nationalism and rising civil societal activism, cross-strait economic integration and migration, and the factors determining its ‘international space’.
As the first comprehensive scholarly work on the Ma Ying-jiu presidency, this books is a must read for students and scholars of Taiwanese politics and society, cross-strait relations and East Asian politics in general.
For more information see the publisher's website.
New book edited by Prof. Gunter Schubert: Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan
2016/6/7
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan (edited by Prof. Gunter Schubert) has been published today! The handbook offers:
"[...] a comprehensive overview of both contemporary Taiwan and the Taiwan studies field. Each contribution summarises the major findings in the field and highlights long-term trends, recent observations and possible future developments in Taiwan. Written by an international team of experts, the chapters included in the volume form an accessible and fascinating insight into contemporary Taiwan. Up-to-date, interdisciplinary, and academically rigorous, the handbook will be of interest to students, academics, policymakers and others in search of reliable information on Taiwanese politics, economics, culture and society."
Please click on the right picture for a closer look at the contents. With the book's promotion flyer you can get a 20% discount when purchasing via the Routledge website.
Taiwan and the "China Impact": New book edited by Prof. Gunter Schubert
2015/12/8
Prof. Gunter Schubert has edited a new book within the Research on Taiwan series by Routledge:
Taiwan and the "China Impact": Challenges and Opportunities
About the book:
"This book analyses the ‘China impact’ on Taiwan in terms of its social, political and security space from both an empirical and conceptual point of view. It is the first comprehensive account of China’s multifaceted impact on the politics and society of contemporary Taiwan, written by renowned scholars from Taiwan, Europe and the U.S. The book covers a wide range of topics including Taiwan’s party alignment, elections, generational politics, cross-strait political economy, immigration policy and security. The contributors, political scientists and sociologists, highlight both the dangers and the opportunities of the ‘China impact’ for Taiwan and draw a realistic picture of the island republic’s current situation and future options in the shadow of its giant neighbour.
Based on qualitative and quantitative data, this volume intends to fill a gap in the Taiwan studies field by studying the ‘China impact’ on Taiwan’s politics and society systematically and from a comparative perspective. By doing so, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Taiwan studies, and East Asian politics and society more generally."
Two new book publications by Prof. Gunter Schubert
Prof. Gunter Schubert, Chair of Greater China Studies at the Department of Chinese and Korean Studies, has published two new books:
"Participation and Empowerment at the Grassroots. Chinese Village Elections in Perspective", co-authored by Anna Ahlers and released by U.S. based-publishing house Rowman & Littlefield, gives a sound acccount of the nexus between village elections and political awarness-building among in the Chinese countryside based on fieldword carried out in six villages located in Jilin and Jiangxi provinces and Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The book also critically assesses the literature on Chinese village elections which have been made obligatory nationwide in 1998 and debated by scholars since late 1980s when they were first introduced on an experimental basis. For more information see:
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739174807
Moreover, Prof. Schubert co-edited a Chinese volume on "Taishang Studies" (Taishang yanjiu / 臺商研究) that was published by Taiwan's renowned Wunan publishing-house and is the first comprehensive book on political and social issues related to the migration to and permanent settlement of Taiwanese entrepreneurs in China. It focuses on the political thinking and organization of the taishang, questions related to their (changing) identity and their integration in Chinese society, and labour relations in Taiwanese companies on the Chinese mainland. The volume is co-edited by Prof. Keng Shu (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) and Dr. Lin-Rui-hwa (National Chengchi University, Taipei). For more information (in Chinese) see:
http://www.wunan.com.tw/bookdetail.asp?no=10917
Taiwanese Identity in the 21st Century - Domestic, regional and global perspectives
Edited by Gunter Schubert and Jens Damm
As we look to enter the second decade of the 21st century, Taiwan’s quest for identity remains the most contentious issue in the domestic arena of Taiwanese politics. From here, it spills over into the cross-Strait relationship and impacts on regional and global security. Whether Taiwan is a nation state or whether Taiwan has any claim to be a nation-state and how Taiwan should relate to "China" are issues which have long been hotly debated on the island, although it seems that much of this debate is now more focused on finding an adequate strategy to deal with the Beijing government than on the legitimacy of Taiwan’s claim to sovereignty as the Republic of China.
The collection of chapters in this book shed light on very different aspects of Taiwan’s current state of identity formation from historical, political, social and economic perspectives, both domestically, and globally. As such it will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of Taiwan studies, politics, history and society, as well as those interested in cross-Strait relations, Chinese politics, and Chinese international relations.
New Publication: Political Participation and Regime Legitimacy in the PR China - Rural China (in German)
Prof. Gunter Schubert (University of Tuebingen) and Prof. Thomas Heberer (University of Duisburg-Essen) published a second volume presenting the findings of their joint research project on political participation and regime legitimacy in the P.R. China.
While volume I (published in October 2007) analyzes developments in Chinese cities, volume II focuses on the impact of village elections on social stability and political legitimacy in rural China.
New Publication: Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China
Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China. Institutional Change and Stability, edited by Prof. Thomas Heberer (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Prof. Gunter Schubert (University of Tuebingen) unites in-depth case studies of a wide-range of political, social and economic reforms in contemporary China by renowned German China scholars and sheds light on the significance and consequences of institutional change for stability of the political system in China.
More information by Routledge
Order Regime Legitimacy in Contemporary China