"Introduction to Taiwan" for 2017 Fall Semester

Introduction to Taiwan

• Teaching Objective
  • This introductory course on Taiwan emphasizes field trips and hands-on experience. Students are taken to visit museums, Taiwanese historical sites, and aboriginal villages. All of the in-depth visits provide opportunities for students to experience interaction between agricultural and environmental change, and understand how social changes affect environmental conditions in Taiwan.    
• Arrangement of teaching schedule
  • Taiwan's history and cultures: field trips to museums, historical sites and local communities.
  • Taiwan's indigenous peoples: field trips to an indigenous village.
  • Taiwan's natural environment                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Two-day field trip to the Old Qijia indigenous tribe

Through visiting this aboriginal village, students have the chance to understand the aboriginal culture of Taiwan. After understanding the difficulties Taiwanese aborigines face today and the efforts they make to maintain their culture and traditions, students are urged to consider the importance of preserving their own cultures.    

Before entering the village, tribe members must offer a prayer to their ancestral spirits and respectfully announce the visitors and explain the purpose of their visit.

Professor Chuang and students are talking in front of a traditional Paiwan stone house.

Since there is no electricity in the village, students have nothing to do but demonstrating their traditional dances to the villagers at night.

Students are taught by the villagers to decorate themselves with local plants for ceremonial dances.