• 2018-08-02

A conference on “Manipulating the Media: News and ‘Fake News’ in China since Early Modern Times” was jointly hosted by the Czech Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Oriental Institute and Taiwan’s National Central Library (NCL). The conference took place from June 7-8, 2018, at the NCL’s International Conference Hall.

Director-General Tseng Shu-hsien remarked that in recent years the NCL has been actively promoting international academic exchanges. Besides establishing 27 Taiwan Resource Centers for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) around the world to serve as strategic centers to help facilitate the deepening of international cooperation, the library has also introduced research from around the world the Taiwanese public. Since the Czech Academy of Sciences signed a cooperation agreement with the NCL in October 2014, a close academic cooperation relationship has developed between the two institutions. Many outstanding overseas scholars were invited to present papers at this conference, with the aim of encouraging academic dialogue and exchange between local Taiwanese and overseas scholars and experts in different fields, and inspiring new ways of thinking.

There were two keynote speeches held at this conference. Professor Wang Fan-sen from Academia Sinica was invited to give the first speech on "Public Opinion in Chinese Society from the Ming and Qing Dynasties down to Modern Times." The second speech "What is Fake News in the Digital Age?" was spoken by Professor Daniela Stockmann from Hertie School of Governance, Germany. In addition, the conference included 9 papers presented by scholars from different academic disciplines, and focused on different periods of history, observing and analyzing cases of media manipulation in China's past and present, and how this manipulation affected society.