Public Humanities and the Case of Taiwan : Reflections and Practices

The theme of this book, as suggested by its title, is public humanities. It is divided into two parts. The first part is “Explorations of Public Humanities,” while the second being “Cases of Public Humanities: Cultural Practices in Taiwan.” The first part contains three articles, explicating the implications of public humanities from various angles. The second part includes six papers as examples of public humanities, yet they will be helpful for gaining insights into cultural scenes of both contemporary Taiwan and Taiwan in the past. During the last few decades, in many parts of the world, the relationship between the humanities and public life received increasing attention. The trend has reached Taiwan. The core appeal of this effort is that humanities scholars should play direct roles in public life, not confining themselves only to academia. Humanities scholarship will benefit from its practitioners’ participation in public and community lives. The authors publish this volume hoping it can deepen the understanding of people in Taiwan about this issue, and the cultural and educational values of the humanities can thus be better appreciated.