Events Examine Transnational Migration in Taiwan
The Asian Studies Program at The University of Scranton will present “People on the Move: Transnational Migration and Cross-Cultural Imagination in Taiwan Literature and Cinema” mini-series on Oct. 5 with a public lecture and on Oct. 6 with a film screening of “The Good Daughter” and Q and A with award-winning film’s director. Both events are free and open to the public and begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall.The University of Scranton’s Asian Studies Program will host two events that examine transnational migration in Taiwan and its cultural impact on the country’s literature and cinema.
Hsin-Chin Evelyn Hsieh, Ph.D., will present “Bringing the World to Taiwan: Border Crossing and Transnational Cultural Flow in Contemporary Taiwan” at a public lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and the lecture beginning at 6 p.m.
A screening of the award-winning film “The Good Daughter” and Q and A with the director Yu-Ying (Sally) Wu will be held on Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Pearn Auditorium of Brennan Hall. The event also begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., and the film presentation beginning at 6 p.m. immediately followed by a Q and A with the film’s director.
Both events are free of charge and open to the public.
Dr. Hsieh is an associate professor of the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature at National Taiwan University. She formerly taught at Wesleyan University and was a visiting scholar at University of Tubingen, Germany. At the Oct. 5 lecture, she will discuss how Southeast Asian migrants and their experiences have reshaped the cultural landscape of Taiwan. Dr. Hsieh’s research interests include contemporary Taiwan literature, film and documentary and migration studies, particularly related to the contemporary cultural production and the inbound and outbound migration of Taiwan.
Director Wu has collaborated with David Sutherland on his FRONTLINE series and other films that aired on PBS. Her debut feature documentary, “The Good Daughter,” won Best Documentary and Best Editing at the 2020 Taipei Film Festival. The film looks at the complicated marriage of a disabled Taiwanese man and his Vietnamese wife, portraying her struggle to balance her family obligation to support her relatives in Vietnam with her duties as a mother and wife to her impoverished family in Taiwan.
The lecture and film screening and Q and A are sponsored by the University’s Asian Studies Program and its College of Arts and Sciences, and the Taipei Cultural Center in New York of the Taiwan Ministry of Culture.
For more information or questions about the events, contact Ann A. Pang-White, Ph.D., director of Asian Studies and professor of philosophy at the University, at ann.pang-white@scranton.edu or 570-941-7643
