The Life and Legacy of Nylon Cheng 鄭南榕: Taiwanese Revolutionary

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A high-flying media entrepreneur and early advocate of Taiwan independence, Cheng Nan-jung 鄭南榕 has come to symbolize bravery in the face of authoritarian repression for generations of Taiwanese. Nylon, as his friends and colleagues called him, sacrificed his life in a protest against the restriction of media freedom, an act that shattered political taboos and has been commemorated with a national “Freedom of Speech Day.” In this talk, Professor Ashley Esarey surveys the life and tumultuous times of one of Taiwan’s famous martyrs, arguing that the legacy of Nylon Cheng helps us understand the conditions in which activism proves resilient and impactful during the long arc of democratic transformation.

A former broadcast journalist, Dr. Ashley Esarey has researched political communication for two decades, including two years of field research in China. He received his undergraduate education at Occidental College in Los Angeles, his MA, MPhil, and PhD in Political Science at Columbia University in New York, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Currently, Dr. Esarey is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta, where he teaches East Asian domestic politics and foreign relations and serves as Director of Taiwan Studies. He is the co-author of My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman’s Journey from Prison to Power (with Lu Hsiu-lien) and co-editor of Taiwan in Dynamic Transition: Nation-Building and Democratization, and Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State. His articles have appeared in such publications as Asian Survey, the International Journal of Communication, the Journal of Contemporary China, and Political Psychology.

This event is part of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies’ "Taiwan in Dialogue” Lecture Series - Spotlight Taiwan Project, supported by a grant from the Taiwan Academy, Los Angeles and Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.

Sponsor(s): Asia Pacific Center, Center for Chinese Studies