Dear friends and members of the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture community:
Since its founding in 2021, the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture Program has brought dozens of filmmakers, performers, musicians, scholars, authors, and other artists to the University of Washington, Pacific Northwest, and North America. I am proud of what the program has accomplished under the leadership of Taiwan Arts and Culture Director Ellen Chang. Her vision has brought together scholarly research as well as creative voices and expressions to our community.
The Arts and Culture Program was originally funded by a generous five-year grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, this funding is running out. Without further funding, the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture Program will end in spring 2027.
I am writing to ask for your support. To help save the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture Program, we are launching a fundraising campaign. Please consider supporting the program. We are particularly in need of a major gift to secure the future of the Arts and Culture Program.
Over the past four years, the Taiwan Studies Arts & Culture Program has organized a wide range of initiatives that bridge scholarship and public life. Major examples include Music, Island, Stories: Taiwan Calling! (2024), a month-long collaboration with the Taipei Music Center (Taiwan) that transformed Taiwanese popular music into a platform for exhibitions, performances, lectures, and institutional exchange; Taiwan Pride + Making Asia’s First (2025), which combined public discussions on Taiwan’s marriage equality movement with participation in Seattle Pride activities; our ongoing partnership with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (2022–present), which has included the Hu Tai-Li Memorial Program (2023), Kuroshio Odyssey (2024–2025), and the Seattle edition of the 2026 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Series, supporting exhibitions, workshops, screenings, and public programs centering Taiwan Indigenous knowledge within broader Pacific and global contexts; and our continuing collaboration with the Memorial Foundation of 228 (Taiwan) through annual memorial programs combining exhibitions, guided tours, roundtables, and keynote lectures that deepen public conversations around the February 28, 1947 Incident, White Terror, transitional justice, Indigenous histories under authoritarian rule, and memory across Taiwan and the diaspora.
I believe that the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture Program has increased diversity in our community and helped foster the pursuit of arts and culture, and we hope to continue the program. Thanks for all of your support the past four years, and we hope to continue for many more years to come.
You can make a gift to the Taiwan Studies Arts and Culture Program at our website. If you are interested in a major gift, please contact James Lin at jyslin@uw.edu and Jenny Poast at jpoast@uw.edu. Giving via check is possible by making checks payable to “University of Washington Foundation” (indicate “Taiwan Studies MOFA Arts and Culture Fund” on the note line), and sending them to: UW Taiwan Studies Program, University of Washington, Box 353650 Seattle, WA 98195-3650 U.S.A. Gifts are 100% tax-deductible as specified by IRS regulations, and gifts of securities may have additional tax benefits. In addition, bequests, trusts and other planned gifts can offer significant tax benefits. Pursuant to RCW 109.09, the University of Washington is registered as a charitable organization with the Secretary of State, State of Washington
James Lin
Associate Professor, Jackson School of International Studies
Chair, UW Taiwan Studies Program