A print version of the world’s first English-language encyclopedia dedicated to Taiwan studies is set to be released in 2026, its Dutch publisher said in a recent interview.
Brill is an international academic publisher based in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Uri Tadmor, the project’s lead at Brill, said the Encyclopedia of Taiwan Studies in print would compile and expand upon its online editions, which have been released incrementally since 2022.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Tadmor said he is optimistic about the encyclopedia’s prospects, citing how many libraries around the world have subscribed to its digital version.
The encyclopedia offers a comprehensive overview of the wide-ranging field of Taiwan studies, a discipline that emerged in Taiwan and further afield in the 1990s, Brill said.
The encyclopedia introduces the multifaceted aspects of Taiwan’s past and present through about 600 entries authored by more than 400 academics worldwide who specialize in 15 fields, Tadmor said.
Five sections of the encyclopedia are already available online.
The complete collection would cover a variety of topics, including archeology, history, international relations, indigenous studies, literature, music and art, the publisher said.
History is the most challenging theme, Tadmor said, citing the complexity and multifaceted nature of Taiwan’s past and the difficulty of maintaining academic neutrality and objectivity.
The encyclopedia underscores Taiwan’s increasing academic recognition and the maturity of Taiwan studies, as there are sufficient research and academics to support such in-depth work, said Hsiao Hsin-huang (蕭新煌), an adjunct research fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology and the encyclopedia’s editor-in-chief.
The global attention on Taiwan studies has a non-academic motivation — the desire to preserve, support and cherish Taiwan’s democracy, Hsiao said.
“This is very important — on one hand, supporting Taiwan, and on the other, studying Taiwan,” he said.