• 2025-07-25

To celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) at the university, National Central Library and the University of Toronto held a lecture as a part of the Taiwan Lecture on Chinese Studies Series on May 12^th, inviting Professor and Department Chair of National Chengchi University’s Department of Ethnology Dr. Da-wei Kuan to present a lecture titled: “Bridging Indigenous Knowledge and Modern Science, Unsettling the Settler-Colonial Land Regime: Experiences from Taiwan.” Director General Yi-peng Liang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Toronto attended and gave remarks at the event.

NCL Director-General Han-ching Wang expressed that NCL began establishing Taiwan Resource Centers for Chinese Studies abroad in 2012 in order to promote and introduce Taiwan’s academic publications and research achievements to the world, in addition to collaborating with various institutions in organizing academic events. In 2015, the MOU signed by NCL and the University of Toronto marked the establishment of the first TRCCS in Canada. The establishment of a TRCCS not only provides rich academic resources, it also demonstrates Taiwan’s spirit of academic independence and research perseverance. A traditional Chinese idiom states that while it takes ten years to grow a tree, it takes a century to cultivate human wisdom. Over the past decade of collaboration, NCL has seen the University of Toronto TRCCS flourish and grow through book donations, exchange among experts, digitization of ancient texts, Taiwan Lectures on Chinese Studies, and more, happily witnessing its growth into an important center for Chinese Studies and Taiwan Research within Canada. NCL looks forward to continued growth and promotion of even more academic exchange between the two countries.

In his remarks at the event, Director General Yi-peng Liang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Toronto, who represented NCL at the event emphasized that the establishment of the TRCCS is not only an avenue for the exchange of historical literature and research materials; even more importantly, it is a channel for exchange and dialogue between the cultures of Taiwan and Canada. Director General Liang expressed that NCL will continue to support bilateral collaboration, further expanding its scope to include digital resources in order to benefit the next generation of researchers and scholars. Professor Da-wei Kuan is the Department Chair of the National Chengchi University Department of Ethnology and is also the Executive Director of the Center for Taiwan-Philippines Indigenous Knowledge, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Studies (CTPILS). University of Toronto Professor Emeritus of Political Science and East Asian Studies, Victor Falkenheim served as the host for this lecture.

Professor Kuan’s lecture described current efforts to bridge indigenous knowledge and modern science through examples of land usage and natural resource management, elaborating how dialogue between these two knowledge systems can promote the progress of decolonization in Taiwan. First, Professor Kuan traced the history of settler-colonial land development and its influence on Taiwan’s current land management regime, as well as its influence on the burgeoning field of indigenous knowledge research. Next, he analyzed the issues, achievements, and challenges that have arisen in the promotion of dialogue and collaboration between indigenous knowledge and modern science. Furthermore, the lecture explored the ways in which these challenges correspond to Taiwan’s unique history of settler-colonial land development. Finally, Professor Kuan emphasized that despite many setbacks, Taiwan’s indigenous communities continue to work hard to dismantle settler-colonial development based land management systems in order to reconstruct an indigenous Taiwanese identity. The atmosphere at the lecture, held during Canada’s Asian Heritage Month in May was lively and warm. The enthusiastic attendance by both faculty and students alike was a strong show of support for the TRCCS anniversary celebration and lecture.