The Taiwan Studies Programme (TSP) is delighted a to announce this seminar by TY Wang, a Professor and Chair of Politics and Government at Illinois State.

Understanding cleavage is central to the study of politics because divisions among groups of people influence citizens’ attitudes and behaviors. In Taiwan, the island’s future relationship with China, manifested in the Chinese/Taiwanese identity and the issue of unification vs. independence, has been considered the most important political cleavage on the island. The key political divide is cloaked in the island citizens’ partisan attachment and is the major determinant of Taiwanese citizens’ electoral behavior. Meanwhile, as the public discourse on Chinese/Taiwanese identity continues, the substance of identity politics has increasingly shifted to the relationship between a unified Taiwan and a hostile China. A new boundary of national identity has thus emerged on the island. 

TY Wang is Professor and Chair of Politics and Government at Illinois State University (ISU) and currently serves as the co-editor of the Journal of Asian and African Studies. He was the Coordinator of the Conference Group of Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) of the American Political Science Association. His current research focuses on national identity, East Asian politics, electoral behavior, US policy towards China and Taiwan and research methodology.

He has secured more than a quarter of a million dollars to support his research. As a result of this external funding, he published eight (8) single-authored, co-authored, and edited books. He also published more than forty (40) articles and book chapters in such scholarly journals as the American Political Science Review, Asian Survey, Electoral Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Issues and Studies, Journal of Peace Research, Political Research Quarterlyand Social Science Quarterly, along with more than seventy (70) conference presentations. His most recent book (co-edited with Christopher H. Achen) is The Taiwan Voter (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).

If you are interested in attending this free event, please reserve your place by emailing Mandy Felton.