Taiwan Undaunted: Documentary Screening with Director Neal E. Robbins

Taiwan Undaunted, an award-winning documentary, explores the emergence of Taiwanese nationhood and identity from colonial and dynastic times through the democratic awakening. Drawing on over 80 in-depth interviews with ordinary people, experts, and politicians, director-presenter Neal E. Robbins captures Taiwanese aspirations, dreams, hopes, and fears. At the centre of his account lie the tensions between Taiwan's indigenous heritage, immigrant roots and the geopolitical complexities across the strait. With China's territorial claims intensifying, the documentary and Robbins’s eponymous book, out in February, reflect on the resilience of Taiwan's democracy and the uncertain future that lies ahead. The film and the Q & A with the director afterwards will also afford the opportunity to consider the challenges posed by documentary and book creation on the same topic. “In documentary I could let viewers fly like a bird over the land, stand in the trenches of World War II battles and take VIP seats at military parades in Beijing while commentary flowed over the scenes,” says Robbins. “The images had emotional impact but at the expense of truncated intellectual breadth and depth. The book echoes the documentary, but refocuses on nuances, interconnections and subtleties, creating a much fuller, more organic vision.”

About the Director

After doing a degree in Chinese at Washington University in St Louis, Neal E. Robbins studied the language in Taiwan from 1976-78, when he also collected Taiwanese short stories later published by Yale University Press. After graduating from Columbia University in journalism in 1979, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Hong Kong, New Delhi and Washington. He was a professor of journalism at Roosevelt University in Chicago from 1986 and from 1991-93 at National Taiwan University (NTU). While in Taiwan he contributed to The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the BBC. From 1993–1995 he was Europe correspondent based in London for the Taiwan newspaper China Times, and from 1997 launched a community website for Cambridge, England, where he lives with his family. After completing a Taiwan Studies degree at SOAS, University of London, in 2023 he returned to Taiwan in 2023-24 as a visiting scholar at NTU.
The seminar will be hosted by Dr Bo-jiun Jing, Senior Research Fellow and Programme Manager in Taiwan Studies at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, and is held in partnership with St Antony’s International Review (STAIR).

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