National Taiwan University

This course surveys Asian North American literature and criticism. Given their similar immigration policies and cultural specificities, North America here includes Canada and the U.S.A., and Asia here is understood as East Asia as South(east) Asia has another complicated British/European colonial history. Since this is an introductory class in nature, students read the excerpts and a long novel from major works from the late 19th century to the present. While discerning the broad scope of Asian American literature as a whole, the course emphasizes the recurring themes, the bi-cultural contexts in which these writers wrote, and their literary experimentation and innovation over the time. To supplement readings of literary texts, students examine selected works of criticism, history, and social sciences. As heterogeneity is a crucial concept in defining the umbrella term “Asian American,” an important goal is to understand Asian North Americans as diverse groups and individuals given their different historical and cultural backgrounds. The course covers both East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Eurasian) and North American (American and Canadian) writers, and also attempts to cover all genres (short story, poetry, fiction, prose, graphics) to give the students a panoramic view of the “heterogeneity” in this quite established discipline.

This course is for students who have taken Advanced I of the Chinese Language Course for International Students. By the end of the course students are capable of using written language to communicate effectively in formal writing and of understanding public announcements, news, and other broadcasts. This course does not use a specific textbook, but brings up topics each class that help students develop proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Through the course, students are able to use appropriate Chinese to carry on discussions, and read newspapers and magazines to further understand Taiwanese culture and language. Assessment: assignments and presentations, quizzes and tests, attendance and participation, midterm and final exams.

This course is an in-depth survey of the traditional Chinese philosophies, mainly the “three teachings” -- Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. This survey focuses on the distinctive concepts of Humanism and Nature in these traditions, which accept “the unity of Nature and Humanity." Based on traditional Chinese ideas of "the Unity of Nature and Humanity," this survey course also explores the possibility that these traditions offer intellectual support for ethics of the environment and climate change, two major issues facing humanity today.  

This course introduces the history of the modern Middle East from the nineteenth century to the start of the Arab Spring in 2010. Since the 600s C.E., the Middle East has been the heartland of Muslim peoples and empires. Along with other religious communities (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian) and a variety of ethno-linguistic groups (Arab, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Azeri), the Middle East constituted one of humankind’s critical intersections between religions and cultures. This course addresses a number of important themes in the lives of Middle Easterners in the past and provides the vital tools and skills to conduct such an investigation. More broadly, the course examines how Middle Easterners have engaged with and contribute to modernity; how traditions and customs has helped them shape and understand the world around them; and how individuals have related to society and state. The Middle East has played vital roles in international affairs today. While the study of contemporary politics is important, this is a history class and it focuses on the past that led to the present.

As innovation is now the most important driver of competitive success, practitioners and scholars have raced to understand the nature and the process of innovation. This course provides a strategic framework for managing innovation. Specifically, attention is paid to the dynamics of innovation, formulation and implementation of technological innovation strategy, and the contexts in which innovation contributes to competitive advantage are highlighted. Texts: Melissa Schilling (2010) Strategic Management of Technological Innovation; Harvard Business School cases; and various articles. Assessment: group presentation (HBR articles) (10%); group presentation (term project) (25%), case write-ups (15%), class participation (10%), midterm and final exams (40%).

This course is for international students gain a better understanding of Taiwan. Local students also participate to reassess their understanding of local history and culture and compare it with view of students from foreign countries. The course focuses on four themes: cinema of Taiwan, history and social change in Taiwan, religious and folk culture in Taiwan, and population and gender issues in Taiwan. Through in-class lecture, video screening, seminar discussion and field trips, students go through a succinct yet thorough introduction of how the Island of Formosa became modern Taiwan, and look into some traditional beliefs, customs and local lives in Taiwan. They are led to appreciate films produced in different periods and explore how various issues or events are presented in those films, as well as study Taiwan's demographic transition, marriage transformation and stalled gender relationship.

The course introduces various basic projects at the implementation level of theater lighting technology, which are roughly divided into the introduction of theater lighting systems; common theater lamps; basic electricity and color paper; optical angles of lamps, and basic practical operations. 

This course provides an understanding of Southeast Asian cultures and peoples, by explaining the general historical change from the 19th century to the 1990s by focusing on cultural change. This course is not meant to be a memorization of detailed names and times, but a creation of soft thinking for cultural change in this complicated wide area. The course looks the following important historical waves: Early Colonization (the period of mercantilism: before 18th century); Imperialism (19th century); birth of Nationalism (first half of the 20th century); Decolonization (the 1940s and 50s); Cold War (the 1960s); and New Change Period (the 1970s and 80s). This course focuses on material cultural elements or pictorial data in each period.

It is commonly known that the experiences of pain help both humans and animals to avoid potentially harmful situations. In recent two decades, progress in research techniques substantially helps researchers to investigate the neural mechanisms of pain. The perception and expression of pain engages the whole neural axis from the peripheral to central nervous system, and an interdisciplinary approach is needed to elucidate the whole picture of pain. How animals and humans process pain and what the influence of emotions and cognitions on pain remain largely unknown. As for the aspect of investigation, how researchers approach pain in animals and humans is a critical issue. What is even more challenging is the neural basis for chronic pain, which results from the aberrant interactions among the bottom-up pain transmission, descending pain inhibition and top-down emotional and cognitive modulations. In this course, we will discuss the neural mechanisms responsible for both physiological and pathological pain and discuss future research ideas, which would provide a promising direction for conquering pain in the future.

This course introduces the system of Chinese characters. The first part focuses mainly on overall characteristics and peculiarities of Chinese characters, beginning with an explanation of the difference between ideographic and phonetic Chinese characters, and herewith to clarify various phenomena of Chinese characters (in form, pronunciation, and meaning) from this basic difference, in addition providing an understanding of the dictionary and its usage. The second part surveys the evolution of Chinese characters in specific eras: starting from the prehistoric age which marks the birth of Chinese characters, students trace how Chinese character structures evolve, and how the genesis of famous forms of calligraphy came to be. Finally, the modern reform and innovation of Chinese characters is introduced.