Lü Hsiu-lien As Feminist or Female Leader? Transcending the Dynastic Model of Female Leadership in Asia”

Key information

Date
Time
11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Venue
Brunei Gallery
Room
BGLT

About this event

Emma Teng
As part of the 2022 SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Summer School, we kindly ask that you register to attend .
*Please be aware that this session follows British Summer Time (BST) .
 
Also available via Microsoft Team

Abstract

Taiwan elected its first female vice president in 2000; the US in 2020. Taiwan elected its first female president in 2016; the US has yet to do so. How have female political leaders in Taiwan had this striking success despite East Asia’s reputation for patriarchal culture? This talk will examine the political career of Lü Hsiu-lien, pioneering feminist and Taiwan’s first female vice president, in light of various theories of female political representation and leadership. It demonstrates that Lü’s rise to power did not follow the familiar “dynastic descent” model prevalent in Asian politics. Finally, the talk examines whether Lü was able to promote a feminist agenda during her tenure as vice president.

Speaker Bio

 

Emma J. Teng is the T.T. and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Asian Civilizations at MIT, where she is a member of the history faculty, and Director of Global Languages. Teng’s first monograph, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895 (2004) a study of Chinese colonial discourses on Taiwan, places the China-Taiwan relationship in the historical context of Chinese imperial expansionism. Her second book, Eurasian: Mixed Identities in the United States, China and Hong Kong, 1842-1943 (2013), examines ideas concerning racial intermixing and the lived experiences of mixed families in China and the US between 1842 and 1943. Her current research focuses on Chinese educational migration to the US under Chinese Exclusion.

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: hl55@soas.ac.uk