NTU and EUTW hosts first annual Taiwan European Cultural Forum

National Taiwan University collaborated with the European Union Center in Taiwan (EUTW) and the Sino-German Culture and Economic Association (CDKWV) in hosting the “Taiwan European Cultural Forum” which took place at the Taipei Brick House on May 23, 2014. The event was organized as the arts and humanities counterpart to the “EUTW Forum,” an established annual event that takes a socio-political perspective of Taiwan-EU relations.

To celebrate the European Union Center in Taiwan’s fifth anniversary, the the cultural forum was held alongside the 2014 V4 Central European Film Festival.

The event kicked off with opening remarks presented by NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang (楊泮池), European Economic and Trade Office Deputy Head Viktoria Lövenberg, and Director General Hung-Dah Su (蘇宏達) of the EUTW. Honored guest included representatives from the Hungarian, Czech, Spanish, and Finland offices in Taiwan, as well as CDKWV Board Director Yi-jing Han (韓宜靜) and Taipei Brick House Director Wu-Lan Huang (黃寤蘭), who played essential roles in the organization of the event.

The forum was hosted by NTU Dean of the Office of International Affairs, Professor Luisa Shu-Ying Chang (張淑英). During her address, Chang pointed out that by holding the forum in a public venue and opening it to public participation, the event is able to reach a wider audience outside of the academics. This, she added, coincided with NTU’s mission to extend our educational responsibility to the wider society. As there are up to 2,600 European students studying at NTU each year, NTU hopes to combine the forces of scholars, experts, and enthusiasts to further promote European culture in Taiwan.

The forum featured three talks presented by Professor Ru-Shou Chen (陳儒修) of the Department of Radio and Television, National Chengchi University, Associate Professor Isabelle WU (吳珮慈) of the Department of Motion Picture, National Taiwan University of Arts, and Associate Professor Lin Chen-Yu (林震宇) of the Department of Spanish, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. The three talks explored, respectively, the ideological transformations during and after the fall of communism in Hungary, Czech, and Poland, the development of the European film industry and its comparison with Hollywood films, and an analysis of female sexuality as exemplified in the films of Spanish Director Pedro Almodóvar.

The talks were then followed by a guided reading and screening of the Hungarian film, The Maiden Danced to Death , by the Hungarian representative to Taipei Levente Székely.