Yun Fan, Ambassadors At Large of the ROC (Taiwan), gave a speech titled “From democratization to democratic deepening: my participatory observations of Taiwan's wild lily movement and sunflower movement” on Oct. 17th at the University of Toronto (U of T). More than 50 guests attended the event, including U of T faculty members and students, and representatives of Taiwanese communities in Toronto. During the lecture and the Q & A session, Ambassador Fan provided her own perspectives and answered questions from the audience. The interaction was warm and lively. The event lasted for two hours.
Ambassador Fan’s presentation was interesting and vigorous, supplemented by video clips that record her involvements in the two above-mentioned student movements in Taiwan. She pointed out that the wild lily movement speeded up Taiwan’s democratization while the sunflower movement led Taiwan from democratization to democratic deepening. In her view, the student movements also contributed to generation change, the rise of the third force and the increase of the female members’ percentage in the Congress which is now 38% in Taiwan. The development indicates that civil society has made great impacts on democracy in Taiwan.
Ambassador Fan also recalled her childhood in Tamsui, Taiwan. She mentioned that Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay, after his arrival in Taiwan in 1871, established Taiwan’s first women's school, built hospitals and founded Oxford College (now Aletheia University) in Taiwan, which is a testament to the early links between Taiwan and Canada. She hoped both countries could further enhance exchange and advance relationship on the basis of a common social structure underpinned by the values of democracy, human rights and diversity.
Professor Joseph Wong, the U of T’s Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, International Student Experience, remarked during the event that Ambassador Fan, with her own personal experience, elaborated how the growth of civil society has become an important indication in examining democratic deepening in Taiwan, which is of vital implication for academic research. Professor Wong also spoke highly of the Global Taiwan Studies, a project jointly promoted by Taiwan government and the U of T. It is under this program that Ambassador Fan was invited to the U of T and gave the speech. The program has also encouraged many scholars to focus their researches on the Taiwan Studies.
Ambassador Fan received her PhD from Yale University and currently is associate professor of sociology at National Taiwan University. Her research interests include social movements, civil society and gender politics. Her work has been published in Sociological Theory, Social Justice, Taiwanese Sociology, Taiwanese Journal of Political Science and a few edited books. Her forthcoming book entitled “Activists Matter: Social movements during Taiwan’s democratic transition, 1980s-1990s” will be published by Routledge. Besides her academic work, she has been actively involved in the Taiwanese student movement, women’s movement and political reform movement for more than twenty years.
Ambassador Fan gives a speech on Taiwan’s democratization and democratic deepening at the U of T.
Many students and scholars attend Ambassador Fan’s talk.
