Introducing the debut of «Sadyaq Balae! L'autochtonie formosane dans tous ses états»

Professor Scott Simon is the designated Chair of the Department of Taiwan Studies, and he is an associate professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the University of Ottawa. He specializes in the study of political economy, and his research focuses on the economic development of Taiwan including female entrepreneurship, development of the indigenous communities, and issues of ethnic identity on the island. His areas of expertise include anthropology, culture, ethnicity and women’s development. Due to his field of study, Professor Simon has a strong passion for Asian culture and maintains a close relationship with the Taiwanese community in Ottawa.

Professor Scott Simon held the official launch of his new book «Sadyaq Balae! L'autochtonie formosane dans tous ses états» on February 6th, 2013. The book provides a rare glimpse of the struggle faced by the Sadyaqs people (an indigenous group in Taiwan) at the turn of the 20th century. Realizing the importance of the book and the need to facilitate cultural exchange, the Cultural Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada invited numerous Taiwanese Student Associations and its business partners in the greater Ottawa area to attend this event. Also present at the book launch, the Cultural Division helped to promote Professor Simon’s book not only for its insightful portrayal of the clash between the sovereignty of the Japanese Empire and that of the Sadyaqs Tribe, but also because it is one of the first “ethnographies of Formosan autochthonous peoples written in a Western language.”