Event Description
Please join The Global Taiwan Institute’s first installment of its Civil Society and Democracy Series, a thematic program under the Public Seminar Series, on March 29th, 2017 at noon. This year marks the 3rd Anniversary of the Sunflower Movement, a historic event in Taiwan’s democracy that included the occupation of the Legislative Yuan for 23 days by student protestors and the participation of more than 100,000 people in a peaceful demonstration in Taipei on March 30, 2014. What began as student-led protests in March became a political movement that eventually contributed to the establishment of several new political parties on Taiwan. Three years later, how do we assess the significance of the movement’s impact on Taiwan’s democracy—its political landscape and trajectory?
Our speakers include student leaders of the movement: June Lin participated in the occupation of the Legislative Yuan and Fang-yu Chen helped coordinate international outreach for the protesters. Louisa Chiang, formerly senior staff at the National Endowment for Democracy, will serve as a discussant and will look at the movement in the broader context of cross-Strait relations, US-Taiwan relations, and democratization in Asia.
Doors will open at 11:30. A light lunch will be served, and the event will begin at 12:00. Kindly RSVP by March 27. Please direct questions or concerns to abell@globaltaiwan.org.
**Media: Please contact Anna Scott Bell at abell@globaltaiwan.org if you would like to bring additional crew members or equipment, so that we can be sure to accommodate you.
Panelists
Fang-Yu Chen is a PhD candidate in political science at Michigan State University. His dissertation, which is titled “Ruling Party Institutionalization in East Asian Authoritarian Regimes,” will compare the ruling parties of former dictators in Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. His research interests include democratization, income inequality, nationalism, and political behavior. After Taiwan’s Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, Fang-Yu and several colleagues co-founded “Who Governs Taiwan” (https://whogovernstw.org), which aims to become the Mandarin version of the Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” blog.
Louisa Chiang is an independent researcher on Chinese political culture. She was most recently senior staff for East Asia at the National Endowment for Democracy. Before NED, she worked on trade issues as a U.S. foreign service officer in Beijing.She also worked for grassroots NGOs in Taiwan and the U.S. She received her Masters of Public Policy from University of California at Berkeley and is a graduate of Harvard College.
June Lin was a participant in the Sunflower Movement. Aiming to follow up on the cross-strait agreement issues and continue the energy of the Sunflower Movement, Ms. Lin and several activists founded the social justice group Democracy Tautin soon after the occupation came to an end. Later that year, she also joined the campaign for KP in Taipei City’s Mayoral election. From 2015 ~ 2016, June then worked at the Lee Tung-Hui Foundation as a Researcher, and also in the Legislative Yuan as Legislator Su Chi-fen’s Congressional Aide. June is now based in DC and currently working as a policy associate at the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).