Talk by Dr. Kuo-Hui Chang and Dr. Gary Downey: “The Abnormal Club: How Electronics Engineers Animated Two Taiwans.”

This talk explores the socio-political context and historical legacies that helped engineers in Taiwan, both islanders and mainlanders, shape Taiwan’s electronics industry into a powerhouse. In the process, we are reminded that engineering, through its material conditions, is inherently political. The speakers use a group of islander and mainlander engineers who called themselves “The Abnormal Club,” because they chose to stay in Taiwan for their studies instead of going abroad to the US, as a metaphor for unplanned collaborations that laid the groundwork for changing Taiwan’s path economically and politically. Sponsored by The Global Asia Hub.