From 4th to 6th October 2023 the Taiwan as Pioneer (TAP) workshop 2023 took place at Tübingen University. Twenty-one scholars from Europe, Taiwan and North America participated in the fruitful academic exchange and networking activities of the 3-day workshop. The first day started with a welcome and introduction of the participants by Dr. Amélie Keyser-Verreault which was followed by the introduction of the TAP Project and the individual subprojects of Dr. Thomas Fliß, Dr. Hsu Yu-Yin and Dr. Amélie KeyserVerreault. Unfortunately, Dr. Josie-Marie Perkuhn did not present her research since she got a positive Covid test. Nevertheless, the three presentations of the subprojects were followed by a Q&A where Prof. Moll-Murata raised the question of how the subprojects can be closely connected under the umbrella of the TAP theme. The TAP researchers found that there are some commonalities to be found between Dr. Fliß’s subproject on 1 Thank you to Sophie Schlebusch for the redaction of the workshop report. 18 “Progressive and Innovative Poetry of the Taiwanese Writer Wu Sheng” and Dr. Hsu’s “Education as a Motor of Modernity: Focusing on the Development of Vocational Education in Colonial Taiwan”. After the lunch break the workshop continued with the first guest lecture by Prof. Kao Ying-Chao from Virginia Commonwealth University on the topic of “Decolonizing Queer Glocalization and Conservative Internationalism: Taiwan’s Pioneering Debates on Xìngbié Píngděng (sex/gender/sexuality equity/equality) Beyond Liberalism”. In his comprehensive presentation Prof. Kao explained three limitations of liberal discourses including the potential reproduction of Euro-American centrism and Western cultural imperialism, the omission of global ideological forces beyond the political left-right spectrum and the assumption of a rigid linear spectrum of gender/sexual politics. He continued with the introduction of the concept of “liquid thinking” in Sociology, presented his mixed-method research design and his findings of the decolonization in different queer discourses. In the Q&A after the presentation Prof. Kao replied to Dr. Zani’s question that he would be open to comparative studies with countries such as Sweden and Canada because they are admired by Taiwanese as being more progressive. After the coffee break the first panel on modern history, culture and society began with Tai Ting-Huang’s presentation of his research on “Geometric Data Analysis of the Field of Senior High Schools in Taiwan (2008-2020). With his innovative quantitative research, he explored the question of how different classes or programs influence the relationship between schools and why certain schools are deemed as distinctive. In the following Q&A Tai answered several questions regarding his intention to put his data to use and how his quantitative approach can be integrated with the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The next presentation was held by Lin Hsin-Hui on the topic of “Disasters as a Method: Non-normative Temporalities and Transformation of Bodies and Islands in Taiwanese Science Fiction”. She explained the relevance of “disaster” and “Taiwanese Sci-fi” as research fields and possible future research prospects such as comparative studies of 19 Taiwanese Sci-fi and that of other regions as well as converging disaster sociology with posthuman and new materialist viewpoints. This was followed by Dr. Monika Arnoštová’s presentation of her research entitled “Disenchanted young professionals in Taiwan: Lying flat between Mainland China and Japan” where she described the relatively new phenomenon of “lying flat” in East Asian societies and acknowledged the lack of a clear categorization of this trend amongst the younger generations. She further expressed her intention to do research on the attitudes of soon-to-be young professionals in mainland China, Taiwan and Japan towards existing working conditions and alternative work models. In the Q&A she received some suggestions on further exploring the influence of work-life balance books on people, the impact of class stratification on the participation in “lying flat” and the views in the media. The last presentation before the dinner was held by Prof. Christine Moll-Murata from the 20 Ruhr-University Bochum on the topic of “Statistics from the Period of Japanese Colonial Rule as Sources for the Socioeconomic History of Taiwan”. She introduced different printed and digital economic statistics and databases as well as one of her research examples on “Labour relations, according to the taxonomy of the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations, 1500-2000” based at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. She concluded with raising some methodological issues such as whether taking over the same categorizations of the original source is ok, whether one should adopt or modify the data of the original source according to one’s own research interest and whether the information in different types of encoding can be interpreted as being identical. The second day of the workshop started with the panel on Indigenous Issues. The first presentation was held by Lin Wan Jou about her research on “Indigenous Female Resilience on the Forced Displacement: A Case Study of Ciulaku, Southern Taiwan”. In her presentation Lin explained the history and forced displacement of Ciulaku in 1976 due to a military expropriation and elaborated on the women’s acquired resilience and response to the traumatic experiences as well as the marginalization still faced by indigenous peoples in Taiwan. 21 After a short Q&A Dr. Fanny Caron continued with the next presentation on “Paiwan women artists as actants of decolonisation: renewal and revival of ancestral practices”. They introduced their research approach consisting of interviews with two famous Paiwan women artists exploring the question of how these women decolonize the collective imaginary, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and their own respective field(s), whilst safeguarding and revitalizing their cultural heritages. They further outlined their main research concepts being based on “Decolonizing Methodologies, Research and Indigenous Peoples” by Linda Tuhiwai Smith and the framework of intersectionality according to Samudzi. They ended the presentation with an explanation of their research methodology where they amongst others justified the use of the term “survivance” instead of “survival” because the former one indicates a “continuation of Native stories that are renunciations of dominance, tragedy and victimry”. The last presentation of this panel was held by Dr. Agathe Lemaitre on the “Maintenance in time of disappearance: Survivance of the clouded leopard in the Paiwan’s spiritual landscape”. She first elaborated on the different categorization of animals in the Paiwan culture and the historic relationship of the Paiwan people to the clouded leopard which is believed to have gone extinct a long time ago. Through her on-site research Lemaitre has found that the silence surrounding the clouded leopard doesn’t mean it has been forgotten or lost the interest of the people, but that silence is a way to protect the idea of a continued spiritual presence of the animal. She concluded that maintaining the presence of the clouded leopard is a matter of resilience and survivance is an act of resistance. The panel ended with a short Q&A and a coffee break. 22 After the coffee break the workshop continued with the presentation of Lee Tzu-Tung on “Sailing in The Pirate Sea of Art”. The artist introduced 5 of their art projects exploring the question of "How marginalized communities queer up the sovereignty and ownership regime under the current hegemonic system?". One of the art projects named “Forkonomy” consisted of several jars filled with water from the South China Sea and contracts of ownership for the water. To better showcase this art project Lee had even brought one of the jars and provided contracts for any of the workshop participants who wanted to buy a few milliliters of the water. This project of theirs raised the most interest among the participants during the Q&A where amongst others Dr. Fliß posed the question of how to define the water as water from the South China Sea. Naturally the artist did not intend to provide exclusive answers to that with the art project but intended to rather make people discuss, negotiate and find answers for themselves. 23 After the lunch break the workshop went on with 6 online presentations from the TAP grant recipients Damir Padieu, Florian Paulsen, Dr. Frédéric Krumbein, Hassan Al-Said, Alena Dorakh and Sven Pabis. Their presentation topics ranged from current developments of the Digital Humanities in Taiwan, the national self-identification of young Taiwanese students, Taiwan’s influence on Europe’s Semiconductor Supply Chain, an emerging Taiwan policy in the EU, the status quo of sales digitalization in Taiwan to the entrepreneurial spirit of Taiwanese students and young professionals. This was followed by the third panel on governance and politics where Prof. Jens Damm substituted for Dr. Perkuhn as the chair. First Anthony Li presented his research on “Understanding the varieties of local developmental states in Taiwan for energy transitions 2015-2020: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis”. In his research he investigated the question of “What kind of institutional arrangements are facilitative to the coordination of the range of actors for the attainment of policy outcome of energy transition?”. He further explained his research methodology of qualitative comparative analysis supplemented with 24 thematic analysis. His most important finding was that local states of both high and low political autonomy, regardless of the degree of urbanization, can facilitate solar energy installation in their respective jurisdictions with institutional innovations to engage local bureaucrats as well as actors of different scales with high cross-scale political coordination. Next, Peng Chao-Hsuan held his presentation on “Revisiting the Taiwanese Debate on “Civil Society” (1986-1987) or Outline of an Intellectual History of Taiwan’s Democratization”. In his research he explored how Taiwanese imaginations of Democracy as well as certain social movements during the 1980s influenced the Taiwanese course of democratization. In several intellectual Taiwanese magazines from that time of which he had brought some samples for the participants he amongst others found a dissatisfaction with the mainstream of Dangwai among the student movement which was challenged in public debates. 25 Lastly, Dr. Chen Wan-Shin presented her research on “Why Did They Cancel the Screen Quotas and what happened today? Examining the Decision-Making and the institutional changes of the Taiwanese Government for Film Policies Based on New Institutional Economics Theories”. Through her research she found that the bounded rationality of the 6 years of democracy before the quota canceling, the emphasis on only high-quality productions for international film festivals and the long-term contract between the State and its citizens have affected the decision-making behind the film policies. Furthermore Taiwan’s isolated diplomatic position strongly led to the cancellation of screen quotas nevertheless some institutional changes from protecting the Taiwan film productions to the concern of the development of the entire film industry have been taken into action since then. The panel ended with a quick Q&A and a coffee break. After the coffee break the 4th panel on LGBTQIA2S+ issues started with Dr. Jens Damm’s presentation on the topic of “Contested and Negotiated Discourses: LGBTQI Issues in Taiwan’s Media”. In his research he pursued to answer the questions of “how has 26 homosexuality been portrayed in Taiwanese media representations during different periods from the mid-1980s until today? Which media platforms were dominant in each period? (or use two most important periods?)”. He found that in the 1980s there has been a gradual liberalisation of LGBTQI issues in the media, yet they were still framed as the other or as a danger. Since 2015 same-sex marriage has first been treated as a political issue, later there has been a shift towards treating it as a human rights issue. After that Chuang Chi-Ting Serena continued with her presentation on the topic of “Samesex couples’ negotiation of filial responsibilities and family relationships: The Case of Taiwan”. She expressed her intention to use the snow-balling technique and conduct indepth interviews with same-sex couples in the UK on their family relationships as a part for her dissertation. She presented her methodological approach which includes family network mapping. After a quick Q&A the day ended with dinner in the old town of Tübingen. 27 The last day of the workshop started with the 5th panel on migration issues and the first presenter Dr. Beatrice Zani explained her research on “Catching global connections. Sketches of reflection on multi-sited ethnography of ports, supply chains, and economic networks in, from and to Taiwan”. For her research she conducted over 70 in-depth interviews with migrant seafarers, migrant women, shipping company owners, tour guides and coast guards in Taiwan. She ended her talk with a theorization of the informal traders of supply chain capitalism. 28 The next presenter Prof. Tseng Yu-Chin continued with an introduction of her research on “‘True love’ or convenience? Strategies and emotions of married Chinese-Taiwanese couples in the West”. Through her in-depth interviews she found that a majority of the couples married for convenience and that they face extra complexities including different legal frameworks and discrimination. The third presentation on the topic was entitled “To see is to act: the screening of And 29 Miles to Go before I Sleep and interactive knowledge co-production” and was held by Prof. Isabelle Cockel. Through her research she intended to answer the question of whether film screening can be utilized as a method for producing knowledge about issues that receive limited public attention. She found that the interaction of the viewers with the film transformed it from a messenger into a site of knowledge co-production since the Q&A sessions and the Facebook posting allowed multiple interpretations of the film and encouraged the audience to contextualize the issues examined by the film. After a short Q&A and a coffee break the workshop continued with a hybrid book publishing talk where first Prof. Dafydd Fell who joined via zoom elaborated on the academic book publishing process and conditions in the European context. He encouraged all participants to engage in more self-promotion for example through podcasts and lobbying libraries. Prof. Kao joined in on the talk to provide an American perspective on book publishing strategies. He provided recommendations on selecting the appropriate presses and emphasized the need to build close relationships with them by being 30 transparent about one’s publishing efforts. Finally, the workshop closed with a discussion on the role of Taiwan as Pioneer and its role in the global megatrends where participants used the opportunity to exchange views and ideas linking and recontextualising their own and the other’s work. All in all, these three days will have enabled a number of researchers to forge academic relationships and networks with a view to future collaborations and, thanks to Prof. Kao Ying-Chao's sound advice, to give young researchers additional tools to develop their careers.

Sharing the pursuit of training the next generation of Taiwan scholars in Europe, the Taiwan Studies Programme at the University of Nottingham, the Centre of Taiwan Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies, and the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan joined forces to hold a joint Ph.D. workshop in Taiwan Studies on Friday, December 10, 2021. 
During the three-hour online event, one Ph.D. from each institution presented their research project and discussed it with the other workshop participants. 
Huang Ching-Yu from SOAS marked the start with her project presentation on “Gender Mainstreaming in Taiwan’s Party Politics”. As Ms. Huang is already in a quite advanced stage of her Ph.D. project, she has recently returned from her field studies in Taiwan and reported about a very successful research process.

Ma Jinpeng, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nottingham next presented his doctoral research project on “The Triangular Relationship Between China, the US and Taiwan: Strategies of Intergovernmental Organisations – Since 1949.” The pandemic had unfortunately kept Mr. Ma from going to the field, so his presentation centred on the conceptual framework and its application to the case of the World Trade Organisation, as far as this could be researched via archival materials. 
Finally, the ERCCT’s Judy Lee, who is in the beginning stage of her research, presented her project plan, titled “Transnationalism, Identity, and Political Participation of Exiled Hong Kong Dissidents in Taiwan.” In her presentation, Judy presented the results of her explorations into the matter, e.g. making contact and chatting with Hong Kong exiles in Taipei, and shared her attempts at conceptualizing of her analysis, as well as her intended methodology. 

The workshop proved to be very fruitful in bringing much expertise to the discussion of each project both from a disciplinary perspective as well as knowledge and experience from the area of Taiwan Studies. In this way, the workshop helped the three presenters to respectively fine-tune or build their analytical and theoretical framework. And as the online format of the event also helped connect the younger scholarly generation across these three institutions, the cooperation will be continued in a series of SOAS-Nottingham-Tübingen Joint Workshops on Taiwan Studies in the future.