Mandarin soft power with Taiwanese characteristics: values, visibility, and challenges

Chung, Elaine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1137-3190 and Gao, Qipeng 2025. Mandarin soft power with Taiwanese characteristics: values, visibility, and challenges. [Online]. Nottingham, UK: Taiwan Research Hub, University of Nottingham. Available at: https://taiwaninsight.org/2025/07/30/mandarin-soft... Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Taiwan’s emphasis on Mandarin education abroad is accompanied by the growing distrust of European universities towards Confucius Institutes, the Chinese government-backed centres for Mandarin language teaching, seeking to replace them with Taiwan alternatives. Similar efforts are seen in the United Kingdom, a main source of European students enrolling in university-affiliated Mandarin language centres in Taiwan, with 584 UK students registered in 2023. Members of Parliament have held discussions with Taiwanese officials about bringing Mandarin teachers from Taiwan to British schools, as part of broader efforts to phase out the Confucius Institutes. In response, Taiwan has widely offered several programmes and scholarships, e.g., the Taiwan-Europe Connectivity Scholarship, to UK students, encouraging and supporting them to study Mandarin in Taiwan. But how effective is Taiwan’s approach to promoting soft power through international language education? Longitudinal research conducted by the authors suggests a complex picture. We conducted in-depth interviews with thirty UK university students majoring in Chinese Studies about their attitudes toward the Taiwanese variety of Mandarin, including traditional Chinese characters, and their perspectives on studying in Taiwan. Notably, twenty-two of them had either already spent their Year Abroad, an integral part of their degree programme, in Taiwan or were preparing to do so. Some of them chose Taiwan rather reluctantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, primarily because China’s borders were closed then. We explore how their views evolved over time, particularly before and after their Year Abroad experience in Taiwan.

Item Type:	Website Content
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Modern Languages
Subjects:	J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia L Education > L Education (General) P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Publisher:	Taiwan Research Hub, University of Nottingham
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 July 2025
Date of Acceptance:	30 July 2025
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2025 09:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180137

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