East Asian Literary Heart and Symbiotic Writing International Conference

The 2025 East Asian Literary Heart and Symbiotic Writing International Conference was held on October 29–30 at the Wang Mo-ren & Chou An-yi Literature Hall at National Tsing Hua University. Co-organized by the Graduate Program in Taiwan Studies alongside several academic institutions, the conference aimed to facilitate international exchange on themes such as symbiotic literary practices, cultural dialogue, and translingual writing across East Asia. The event also formed part of the 21st anniversary activities of the East Asian Colonialism Literature Forum and served as a significant commemorative event for the twentieth anniversary of the Graduate Program in Taiwan Studies.

A special session titled “Cultural Home and Environmental Reflections — 20th Anniversary Faculty–Student Commemorative Panel” was held on the second day, with Professor Huang Chien-yu serving as commentator. In this session, alumna PhD student Wang Hsueh-ling presented Tiancheng Ark: Traveling and Reading Taroko, while master’s student Huang Chih-chao delivered a paper on Giant Imagery and Its Metaphors in The Sea Breeze Hotel, demonstrating the program’s diverse scholarly engagements with cultural writing, spatial reflection, and ethnic studies.

In addition to the commemorative panel, faculty, alumni, and students from the program were active across various sessions. Notable contributions included PhD candidate Huang Ping-chang’s paper on Eco-Heterotopia in Liu Ke-hsiang’s Hong Kong Writings, as well as presentations by Director Liu Shu-Chin, Professor Hsieh Shih-tsung, Associate Professor Chiu Hung-lin, and Associate Professor Wang Wei-chih. Together, these contributions enriched discussions on East Asian literature, strengthened the international visibility of Taiwanese literary and postcolonial studies, and fostered new opportunities for global scholarly collaboration. Overall, the conference advanced cross-border intellectual exchange and reinforced the program’s ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary dialogue in its twentieth anniversary year.