The Taipei City-based Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines has concluded an agreement with the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies regarding a two-year research program on contemporary Taiwanese indigenous peoples.
SOAS Director Baroness Valerie Amos and SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Director Dafydd Fell signed the pact June 8 on behalf of the British institution. The agreement will come into force once it is received and signed by museum Chairwoman Kristin C. C. Lin and Director Eric H. Y. Yu.
Under the accord, the SOAS Taiwan center will organize over 20 public events featuring issues related to Taiwan’s indigenous cultures and welcome 12 international experts to London to share their research on the nation’s native peoples. The program, sponsored by the Shung Ye Museum, is slated to officially begin in September and run until 2019.
“We are very excited about this project and to be working … with Shung Ye Museum,” Fell said during the inking of the pact. As all of the events will be open to the public, he said he expects the collaborative effort will help raise awareness and bring better understanding of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.
According to the Taiwan center director, it is hoped that information gleaned from the research project will one day be used in the institution’s courses as well as by academics and experts around the world. “Since most of our Taiwan courses at SOAS are focused on contemporary Taiwanese society, politics, law and popular culture, we will be able to use the new program to enhance our Taiwan teaching,” Fell added.
This is the third collaborative project between the Centre of Taiwan Studies and the Shung Ye Museum, the first being focused on archival research regarding British missionaries to Taiwan and the second on the island’s indigenous peoples during the 19th century.
The Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, founded in 1994, maintains a large collection of artifacts from local indigenous peoples as well as artworks such as oil paintings, sketches, ink paintings and photographs. (KWS-E)
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