On March 23, 2025, the Taiwan Program at APARC held the conference Taiwan Forward: Driving Modernization Amid Shifting Global Dynamics in Taipei, bringing together scholars from Stanford, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Singapore alongside top Taiwanese industry experts to examine comparative strategies for Taiwan to address some of its pressing challenges and position it for continued growth and leadership on the global stage.

Held at National Taiwan University (NTU) and co-sponsored by NTU’s Office of International Affairs, the conference panels bridged technology, culture, and society through interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives, representing the Taiwan Program’s research approach and interests through discussions on topics ranging from advancing health care technologies to fostering entrepreneurship and attracting global talent, grappling with national and diasporic identities and narratives, and addressing the challenges of demographic and family structure change. 

“Taiwan has long been overlooked and understudied in academic and policy circles. But that is changing. Taiwan is now the center of many critical conversations,” said APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin, who is also serving as the director of the Taiwan Program, in his welcome remarks. APARC launched the Taiwan Program in May 2025, aiming to connect scholars, students, and innovators at Stanford and across the United States with their counterparts in Taiwan to generate forward-looking insights that contribute to Taiwan’s future development and U.S.-Taiwan interaction. “We came to Taipei to introduce our new program and reaffirm our goal of building a thriving hub for Taiwan studies at Stanford,” Shin stated.

The conference opened with congratulatory remarks by Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chia-Lung Lin and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene. "Taiwan is leading the charge in innovation," Minister Lin declared, emphasizing the country’s vision for the future grounded in technological advances, investments in social capital, and cultural cooperation. He underscored the importance of the "two I’s" – innovation and inclusive identity – defining Taiwan’s progress. Taiwan, he noted, is thriving as an economic powerhouse while remaining a staunch advocate for democracy, peace, and mutual prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

Greene reflected on Taiwan’s achievements and its growing influence beyond its borders. He noted that Taiwan’s effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic set a global benchmark, that its economy has been roaring ahead with the tailwind of a world-beating technology sector, and that “democracies from Europe to Japan to Australia have recognized Taiwan as a beacon of universal values and are stepping up to support its resilience and participation in the international community.”

Health care innovation in comparison

The first panel of the conference, moderated by Karen Eggleston, the director of the Asia Health Policy Program at APARC, shared technology and policy perspectives on health and health care advancement in Taiwan and elsewhere.

The discussion opened with a consideration of child mental health in Taiwan, whose education system places a strong emphasis on academic performance and highly competitive university entrance exams. NTU economist Kuan-Ming Chen presented a study on the impact of school milestones – such as primary and middle school entry, and high-stakes exams for high school and college entry – on children’s mental health in Taiwan. The findings indicate that these milestones are associated with increases in prescription medications for treating mental health conditions, including ADHD and depression. They suggest that parents and school administrators should consider more holistic and forgiving ways to assess children’s educational progress, said Dr. Chen.

Lynia Huang, founder and CEO of Bamboo Technology, shared the company’s approach to addressing mental health through technology. Bamboo’s AI-powered virtual therapist, "HereHear," has made significant strides in providing within-reach, personalized mental health support. Huang emphasized the importance of making psychotherapy affordable and accessible to all, noting the app’s success in Taiwan’s mental health clinics, government agencies, and companies, spurred by a shortage of mental health workers. Bamboo Technology is expanding to the U.S. market, with plans to offer AI-driven mental health support in human resources.

NTU economist Ming-Jen Lin highlighted Taiwan’s strategic push into precision health, a rapidly growing sector that aims to leverage technology and data for personalized health care solutions. He also discussed Taiwan’s Age-Tech industry action plan aimed at improving the quality of life of the elderly. "Building a resilient and inclusive society includes focusing on intergenerational mobility and health," he added, noting Taiwan’s unique position to tackle intergenerational health inequalities and lead in health care advancements that could serve as a model for other nations.

Medical Doctor Siyan Yi of the National University of Singapore, an infectious disease epidemiologist and a former Asia Health Policy Program postdoctoral fellow at APARC, offered a comparative perspective on mental health needs, sharing insights from his research in Cambodia. He emphasized the challenges of mental health interventions in low-resource settings, stressing the importance of scalable and culturally appropriate solutions.

Entrepreneurship, technology, and leadership: A new era of opportunity

The second panel, moderated by Stanford’s H.-S. Philip Wong, Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor in the School of Engineering, centered on the shifts in the entrepreneurial and technology landscape in Taiwan, with speakers offering personal insights and discussing the country’s role in the global innovation ecosystem. Key themes of the discussion ranged from attracting talent to fostering a culture of innovation, with a particular focus on AI, blockchain, and hardware advancements.

Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, Taiwan Gold Card holder #1, and an advocate for the country’s global talent development initiatives, reflected on the evolution of the Gold Card program, which was introduced in 2019 to ease the immigration process for high-skilled foreign experts. “Back then, it was still difficult to attract foreign talent to Taiwan,” Chen noted. He shared his experience moving from Silicon Valley to Taiwan, highlighting the challenges and lessons learned in building a company in both environments. Chen expressed excitement about the Gold Card as a bridge for fostering collaboration between Silicon Valley and Taiwan, an essential step in growing the country’s innovation ecosystem.

Matthew Liu, a tech veteran with a background in YouTube and crypto, emphasized the importance of perseverance and adaptability in entrepreneurship. Liu, who has led several startups, expressed his optimism about the rapid advancements in AI, blockchain, and hardware, noting the confluence of these technologies as a fertile ground for future breakthroughs. “There’s going to be an explosion of interesting technologies, and I want to see Taiwan leading that charge,” he said. Liu believes Taiwan’s tech ecosystem is at a pivotal moment, poised to make significant strides in the AI revolution.

Huey-Jen Jenny Su, former president of National Cheng Kung University, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and a champion of entrepreneurship in education, underscored the transformative role of universities in fostering innovation. She shared her vision of universities as providing environments where students acquire entrepreneurial skills in preparation for a future where they can drive technological advancements and societal progress.

Yaoting Wang, founding partner of Darwin Ventures, described his entrepreneurial journey from the tech sector to AI, recalling pivotal moments of success and failure. Reflecting on the differences between Taiwan and the U.S. tech ecosystems, Wang pointed out that Taiwan’s smaller market size makes it harder for startups to scale quickly. “When you start a company in the United States, you’re immediately in the market,” Wang explained. “In Taiwan, you must factor in the distance to market.”

Steve Chen noted that while Taiwan’s engineering talent is robust, there is a need to create an environment where failure is seen as a stepping stone rather than a setback. Liu echoed this sentiment, stressing that Silicon Valley’s success stems from a culture that embraces experimentation and adaptability. He called for similar attitudes in Taiwan, encouraging policies that foster innovation and allow for more freedom in business ventures.

The panel also addressed Taiwan’s role in a geopolitical context. Liu highlighted the importance of Taiwan’s positioning relative to the U.S.-China race for technological supremacy. He noted that the trade war between the powers has led to more isolationist policies, which could present opportunities for Taiwan to establish itself as a key player in global tech relations.

Cultivating new generations of Taiwan scholars and considering Taiwanese identities and narratives

Between the morning and afternoon sessions, the conference featured a dialogue between Tiffany Chang, a Stanford student pursuing a BS in engineering management and human-centered design and an MS in sustainability, and Liang-Yu Ko, a sociology graduate student at NTU soon heading to Stanford for doctoral studies. Their exchange offered a candid reflection on the experience of being Taiwanese in the United States vs. Taiwan, comparing academic and student life at Stanford and NTU, and how each institution approaches technological innovation, comparing the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem to Taiwan’s. Framed as a conversation between academic peers, the dialogue underscored the importance of cross-cultural understanding, diverse perspectives on innovation, and the value of cultivating sustained academic exchanges between Stanford scholars and students and their peers in Taiwan.

In the afternoon, the third panel of the conference, moderated by Ruo-Fan Liu, the Taiwan Program’s inaugural postdoctoral fellow, also showcased the next generation of scholars studying Taiwan, with all presenters having been trained at Stanford University and in connection with APARC. These young scholars offered fresh and insightful perspectives on the complexities of Taiwan’s history, Taiwanese identities, and the experiences of its diasporic communities.

Carissa Cheng, a BA student in international relations, presented her research on Taiwanese American diasporic storytelling and its connection to perceptions of China. With her undergraduate research project, she hopes to illuminate the interplay between identity and political perceptions within the Taiwanese American community.

Yi-Ting Chung, a PhD candidate in history, shared parts of her dissertation project on the experiences of the Taiwanese diaspora in the United States during World War II. Chung’s research sheds light on the marginalized experiences of Taiwanese migrants, who were often categorized as Chinese or Japanese Americans, and the U.S. government’s treatment of them as potential allies or enemies, thus contributing to a new understanding of Taiwanese diasporic identities during a pivotal historical period.

Sociologist Jeffrey Weng, an assistant professor at NTU and a 2020-21 postdoctoral fellow at APARC, discussed his book project, Out of Many Voices, One: Language and the Reinvention of the Chinese Nation. He focused on a chapter that delves into the ideological battle over the Chinese script, exploring how Taiwan’s adoption of traditional characters and the pronunciation system Bopomofo became symbols of Taiwanese identity. Weng explained how the People’s Republic of China’s push for simplified characters, contrasted with Taiwan’s defense of traditional characters, exemplified a deeper contestation over cultural authenticity and political legitimacy. Weng’s research illuminates how adopting a distinct writing system became a powerful tool for signaling Taiwanese identity in Taiwan and in broader political narratives throughout the Chinese-speaking world.

Carissa Cheng, a BA student in international relations, presented her research on Taiwanese American diasporic storytelling and its connection to perceptions of China. | Courtesy APARC

Facing the demographic transition in East Asia

The last conference panel, moderated by Stanford sociologist Paul Y. Chang, a senior fellow at FSI-APARC, featured three experts on demography and population policy who offered comparative perspectives on the rapid demographic shifts in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, which are all experiencing declining birth rates and aging populations, posing challenges to their economies and health systems.

Academia Sinica’s Yen-Hsin Alice Cheng pointed out that Taiwan’s low fertility rate is driven not only by a decline in quantity but also by a shift in timing, as more people choose to have children later in life, and the rapidly rising share of never-married adults across all ages. She noted that two-thirds of single adults in Taiwan have no stable relationships (reflecting a similar trend in Japan and Korea), due to difficulties in finding partners with compatible values and the demands of modern work life. Cheng argued that Taiwan’s government policies to address falling birth rates, such as paid parental leave and baby bonuses, are misdirected, as they target married couples rather than addressing the problem at stake: fewer people are choosing marriage in a society with very low non-marital births.

Youngtae Cho of Seoul National University shed light on the demographic challenge in Korea, where fertility rates have similarly remained stubbornly low despite various government initiatives. Cho identified the extreme competition to succeed academically and professionally among Korea’s youth, particularly in metropolitan Seoul, as a key factor driving young people to prioritize career survival over family formation. He emphasized that welfare policies, such as improving childcare environments and promoting gender equality, cannot alone mitigate Korea’s fertility crisis. Instead, he said, Korea needs to pluralize the paths for young people to envision their futures, including increased flexibility in work hours and a reformed education ecosystem designed for smaller cohorts.

Setsuya Fukuda of Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research discussed several factors contributing to Japan’s fertility decline, including an increasingly unreliable labor market for youth and rising child-rearing costs. Fukuda stated that although young adults still highly value marriage, the lack of suitable partners and economic insecurity are significant barriers to childbearing. As in Taiwan, most births in Japan still occur within marriage, but as non-marital births remain low, the nation’s fertility levels continue to suffer. Fukuda advocated for better policies to support dual-earner families, such as equal pay, formal childcare, and flexible work hours, to allow Japanese couples to balance careers and family life more effectively.

Together, the panelists painted a complex picture of the demographic transition in East Asia, where cultural expectations, economic pressures, and political systems all interact to influence fertility trends. They highlighted the need for holistic policy responses that address both individual choices and the societal structures shaping them.

An interdisciplinary, comprehensive approach to studying Taiwan

One core theme underlying all panels was the need for a nuanced and interdisciplinary approach to addressing Taiwan’s challenges in the coming years. Concluding the conference, Dr. Shin noted that Taiwan is too frequently seen through a narrow lens, defined either by its dominance in the semiconductor industry or its position amid U.S.-China tensions. “While these are critical dimensions, they do not tell the full story,” said Shin.

He emphasized that Taiwan warrants recognition not only for its technological prowess but also for its robust democracy and vibrant culture. At the same time, while it draws attention amid geopolitical friction and mounting pressure from China, Taiwan also confronts domestic challenges shared by other post-industrial economies and societies. The Taiwan Forward conference explored some of these challenges, and the headwinds ahead abound in additional areas: deepening political polarization, rising housing costs, widening inequality, shortage of labor, and energy constraints, to name a few. “Addressing these challenges in the coming years demands a comprehensive approach integrating rigorous, interdisciplinary, comparative study and sustained engagement,” Shin said.

“That’s where our Taiwan Program comes in. We set out on a mission to promote understanding of Taiwan’s society, economy, culture, and history, on American campuses and within non-academic circles, and to create a platform that fosters long-term academic and policy collaboration between Stanford and Taiwan,” he concluded.