CEFC Young Researchers’ Day at the Academia Sinica, Taipei

On Wednesday 5 June 2024, the yearly Young Researchers’ Day (Journée Jeunes Chercheurs) took place at Academia Sinica. Organised by the Taipei branch of the Centre d’Études Français sur la Chine Contemporaine (CEFC) and the Taipei Antenna of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the event highlighted the work of eight young doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Chaired by Frank Muyard, director of the Taipei Antenna of the EFEO, and Corrado Neri, president of the CEFC in Taiwan, the day started with a first section dedicated to “Nationalisms and Regionalisms”. This allowed Alexis Franchaud to discuss his analysis of Xi Jinping’s “techno-nationalist” speeches and the People’s Republic of China’s attachment to technological development in its relationship to the world. His work revolves around the clear evolution of his speeches since Xi Jinping’s inception as paramount leader, going from a defensive discourse focused on national independence to an expansionist dialectic about securing China’s place as the first technological superpower in 2030. Oscar Truong then presented the results of his sociological study of young artists groups involved in local cultural militantism in China. His thesis followed the constitution of an autonomous artistic space in Guangzhou and its links with others Far-Eastern artistic spaces (which he calls an “East-Asian Transcritical Archipelago”) in the context of increased authoritarianism in China and Hong Kong. He was followed by Aymeric Collart, who discussed his psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics work on Taiwan’s Mandarin. Collart’s study of the “You (有) + VP” structure [Collart uses the sentence “我有做夢”, “I dreamt” or “I had a dream” as an example of what he meant], a structure not often used in mainland Mandarin, touched on several hypotheses about the use of this structure as “a marker of past tense, perfect aspect or assertive modality”. He concluded his talk with an analysis of politicians’ use of the structure in debates before the presidential elections.

In the afternoon, a section titled “Urban Practices and Societies in Taiwan” allowed Ouwakpare Victorin Oussoi to broach theological themes with his comparative study of divination practices in Taiwan and in Benin. His work, which started as a comparison between the Yi Jing and the Fâ, divination books from Chinese and Beninese culture respectively, has been reformulated to focus on practices such as the questioning of ancestors, temple ceremonies and the practice of vodun in Benin. Grégoire Ramé followed with the presentation of his geoenvironmental study of the sand trade in Taiwan. The most exploited resource in the world and in Taiwan, sand is at the crossroads of autochthonous, political, ecological and even geopolitical questions, with China using sand exports as a bargaining tool against Taipei. Ramé works with a mixed approach, trying to spatialise sand mines and what he calls an “ordinary extractivism” while doing participant observation and interviews with miners, NGOs and local politicians. Finally, Nausica Rivière, with an anthropological scope, delved into her survey of the institutionalisation of same sex couples’ weddings in Taiwan. Rivière explained that she followed several couples in their decision-making throughout the preparation of their wedding. As Taiwan only legalised same-sex marriages in 2019, Rivière studies how these couples treat the institution of marriage, their endorsement and rejections from family members and how they act to reassure relatives.

The third and last section, called “Autochthonous Anthropology”, highlighted the work carried out by Hélène Trébuchet on the cultivation and weaving of ramie in Pangcah (Amis) villages. Ramie, a plant present in most of East Asia, is used for textile purposes by the Pangcah people. Trébuchet is leading a participant observation in an Austronesian village in Hualien county, where she studies the weaving of ramie and the importance of the plant for the village. She also tackles the issue of the transmission of this practice, long maintained by a few women and slowly regaining interest in younger generations. Finally, Arielle Noy Gsell closed the day with her works on the negotiations between autochthonous communities and Taiwanese museums about the restitution of autochthonous objects and remains. Noy Gsell explained that the present situation of autochthonous objects is the legacy of continuous colonial plundering, by Western, Japanese, and even the Kuomintang government. Many objects and remains lie in museums and universities. She studies the relationships, the collaborations and the oppositions created by retrieval negotiations.

The Radio Taiwan International French service has released a podcast about the day, available on their website: https://fr.rti.org.tw/radio/programMessageView/id/111041