Vision and Mission
Global Asia Research Center
Global Asia Research Center (GARC) was established in 2017 after College of Social Sciences received a generous funding form Kim Koo Foundation, Republic of Korea. With the support of the dean at the time, Kuo-Hsien Su, the center was established and led by Pei-Chia Lan as the founding director. The center aims to promote cross-social and cultural comparative studies in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as to conduct Taiwan studies from a global and transnational perspective.
In the past, many Western Asia research centers in universities followed the paradigm of area studies, viewing Asia as an exotic experience under the influence of colonial or imperial traditions, even with a voyeuristic gaze. In contrast, Global Asia studies emphasizes examining Asia in the context of globalization, breaking free from the narrow approach of defining “Asia” by geographical regions. The Global Asia Research Center takes a similar approach, using comparative and transnational studies as a paradigm, hoping to break through the bottleneck of Taiwan studies, enhance the understanding of the unique characteristics of Asian modernity, and gradually accumulate theoretical energy to challenge the biases and limitations of Western paradigms.
Focusing Asia Dynamic
Promoting Global Partnership
Initiating Research Discussion
Our center aims to promote these 3 research agendas
1/ comparative Asia
First, comparative Asia: By comparing with other Asian countries with similar development paths, it helps us to understand the universality and uniqueness of Taiwanese society, as well as deepening our understanding and analysis of Asian modernity. Broadly speaking, comparative research includes forming multinational research teams, holding seminars to compare data and findings from different countries, or examining individual cases from a comparative perspective.
2/ transnational Asia
Secondly, transnational Asia: It is crucial to examine the increasingly frequent flow and connections within the Asian region from a transnational perspective. In addition to the outflow of capital, we are concerned about the growing movement of people within Asia, including phenomena such as marriage migration, labor migration, investment and professional migration, and retirement migration, as well as the transnational dissemination of popular culture, social movements, scientific knowledge, consumption, and religion.
3/ global Asia
Lastly, Global Asia: Expanding the research scope to the appearance and role of “Asia” outside of Asia, such as Asian immigrants in North America or Chinese investment in Africa, highlighting the mutual influence of different societies, groups, and institutions within and outside of Asia, including imitation, competition, and differentiation.
Our center encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and the establishment of platforms for research and discussion. Currently, we have nearly 60 members from different departments at National Taiwan University, divided into six research clusters: (1) Family, Population, and Gender, (2) Ethnicity and Migration, (3)Global Economy and Local Inequality(4) Civil Society and Social Movements, (5) Urban Development and Governance, and (6) Global Culture, Religion, and Consumption. Our center actively promotes exchange and collaboration with academic institutions and research teams in Asian studies around the world, and establishes long-term regional comparative research mechanisms to increase the active participation, visibility, and influence of Taiwan researchers in the international academic community.