Cross-Currents of Social Theorizing of Contemporary Taiwan

This rich and constructive collection provides English readers a window to envisage various aspects of social, cultural, political, and religious development in contemporary Taiwan.

—Hsun CHANG, Academia Sinica, Taiwan



This book represents a landmark contribution to the understanding of social theory as practiced and taught in Taiwan. [.] This book demonstrates that theory is a living and dynamic world of ideas and practices and that it is in the ‘cross[1]currents’ that really interesting things happen.

—Dr. Marcus Bussey, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia

This collection of original essays provides a multidisciplinary forum on contemporary Taiwan, covering a wide range of subjects of profound interest [..] and representing the diversity of approaches to bring new understanding to the past and present of Taiwan as a culture and a society. The collection is a must[1]read book for students and scholars not only of Taiwan studies but also of Chinese studies and Asian Studies.

 —Yu-cheng Lee, Academia Sinica, Taiwan




The book presents aspects of cross-currents of theorizing of self, culture and society in the contemporary Taiwan. Social theorizing has been addressed critically, reflectively and creatively by the philosophical, religious, psychological and literary traditions of one of the world’s great civilizations




Theorizing is a dynamic movement of self, culture, society and the world as it is related to our actions, reflections, meditations to understand the world more meaningfully and holistically as well as to transform it. But much of social theorizing in the modern world is primarily Euro-American and despite the socalled globalization of knowledge, this condition of one-sided Euro-American valorization of knowledge and neglect of others continues unabated. There is very little attention to theorizing about the human condition emerging from other parts of the world such as Taiwan and its global implication. This book transforms this condition by mapping the field of theorizing in a wider spectrum of philosophy, psychology, religions, social sciences and humanities in contemporary Taiwan.



Ananta Kumar Giri is a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India.



Su-Chen Wu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures of Fo Guang University, Taiwan.