Echopedia

Columbia University Taiwanese American Students Association

4 min read

Columbia University Taiwanese American Students Association

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Columbia University Taiwanese American Students Association
  • Chinese: —
  • Era: Contemporary
  • Geography: Taiwanese American community
  • Core roles: Community organization (TAH directory)

The Columbia University Taiwanese American Students Association (CU TASA) is an undergraduate organization at Columbia University dedicated to building a community for individuals interested in Taiwanese culture. It is recognized as an official student group under Columbia College and Columbia Engineering’s Activities Board.

Role in the Community

Columbia University has a long documented thread in the Taiwanese student movement in New York, predating CU TASA’s current undergraduate form:

  • 1960s — Formosan Club at Columbia: the earliest documented Taiwanese student circle in New York gathered around Columbia’s campus — 大紐約區台灣同鄉會’s own history records that student gatherings were held at the International House (I House) near Columbia and at Riverside Church, chosen because only near universities was American society open enough to foreign students; the Formosan Club itself was social rather than political, but discussion among students there spread 台灣意識 and drew government attacks that pushed some into the overseas Taiwan movement — 2017.
  • 1960 — Columbia law first: 盧焜熙 Dr. David Lu is recorded as the first Ph.D. in law from Columbia University, N.Y. (1960), an early Columbia milestone for Taiwanese scholars — The first Ph.D. holder in law: Columbia University.
  • 1969 — Radio Taiwan New York (紐約「臺灣之音」) director Chang Fu-hsiung (張富雄) recalled arriving at Columbia University as a student that year and seeing a dormitory sign, “Free China is neither free nor China,” which set him on a path of searching for self-identity — a campus experience many overseas Taiwanese shared, per 何義麟’s movement-history essay. See 357. 舊金山灣區臺灣人的社團活動與家國意識之形成.
  • 1920s — first Taiwanese at Columbia: 林茂生, studying at Columbia University around 1920, hosted 林獻堂 in New York — the anecdote (from 林獻堂’s 美國見聞錄) is recalled in the movement-history essay on early Taiwanese students in the US — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys266|Our Journeys #266]].
  • 1970s — Columbia intellectuals in the NY movement orbit: Columbia’s East Asian literature professor 夏志清 and music department chair 周文中 anchored the Chinese-language intellectual circle in 1970s New York, per 李敏勇’s memoir — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys70|Our Journeys #70]]; Columbia Taiwanese students also played friendly softball games against the Queens Winfield Church (恩惠教會) team, a Friday-night gathering spot for Taiwanese students near the campus circle — 1974 Toronto tournament recollection — Roger Liu.
  • 1976 — Columbia professorship helps name FAPA: the 台灣人權協會 (Formosan Association for Human Rights) took its name on the advice of Columbia University professor 司馬晉 (James Seymour), an advocate with human-rights experience and a broad view — 張丁蘭’s founding account — [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys75|Our Journeys #75]].
  • 1991 — Columbia was a host campus for the founding-era ITASA “seeds” meeting: about twenty representatives from Harvard, Columbia, Yale, U Penn, Smith, Rutgers, and NYU converged on Columbia’s campus for three days to shape the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association. This places a Columbia Taiwanese student group at the root of the intercollegiate network that present-day CU TASA inherits. See Inspire, Empower, and Activate: ITASA’s Coming of Age and 46. History of ITASA.

HOLD: the TAH directory describes CU TASA as a contemporary undergraduate club; the corpus shows Taiwanese student organizing at Columbia from at least 1991 (ITASA seeds meeting). Whether today’s CU TASA is a continuation of that earlier campus group or a later re-founding is unresolved — not auto-merged.

Sources

Graph View

Backlinks