Building Paths for the Myanmar-Taiwan Community

Construct. In adopting the socio-philosophical concept of construct, the researchers wanted to find out how art and culture in Myanmar are shaped by confrontation of different values and systems. Exchange visits. People of Taiwan and Myanmar can understand each other better with the aid of field research, investigation, writing, journalism, and ethnography and in this specific discussion, international volunteer schemes were recommended as a good approach to accelerate constructive dialogues between these two countries. Community. The researcher studied how Taiwanese and Burmese emigres built their own communities in Myanmar and Taiwan respectively and developed distinctive features that derive from the culture of the adopting countries. Diaspora. In Sinophone studies, diaspora is generally used to refer to the displacement of the Sinophone people after the Second World War, including the Sino-Burmese community that remained unrecognized in Myanmar or managed to move to Taiwan. While supporting the importance of studying this specific community, Jiang also expanded the idea to include the recent expulsion of the Rohingya population. Voicing opinions. For Jiang, an effective communication strategy can help the Burmese to present their troubled history worldwide and amass public support. Resistance. As art is a means of holding, expressing, understanding, and communicating human experiences, Jiang suggests that Burmese people can use art to empower themselves when forming an international movement against oppression and dictatorship. Actions. When the Burmese activists struggled with military rule, some ideas were explored to inspire the Myanmar-Taiwan Community to take feasible actions.