The 2010 Brown University Strait Talk Symposium will take place in Providence, RI, and end in New York City, NY, Friday, October 29th – Friday, November 5th. Click on the relevant link below to apply today! If you are having trouble with the form, feel free to download our Word .doc versions of the application.

The long-awaited Strait Talk event schedule has arrived! Each day from April 5th to the 9th will feature a unique and exciting round of highly respected speakers, so please be aware that the times and locations of each day’s events may be different.

2010 Symposium at Berkeley: April 5-9, 2010

Monday, April 5, 2010
5:45 pm: Business Dynamics Across the Strait
Center for Pacific Rim Studies, University of San Francisco
    Robert Kapp – Former U.S-China Business Council & Senior China Advisor to K&L Gates
    Brett Lee – Head of Taiwan Trade Office
    Tom Gold – UC Berkeley, Sociology
    Jean Oi – Stanford, Director of Stanford China Program

Tuesday, April 6, 2010
6:00 pm: Understanding Cross-Strait Dynamics Today
C230 Haas School of Business
    Xiao Qiang – UC Berkeley, Director of China Digital Times
    Darren Zook – UC Berkeley, Comparative Politics
    Melissa Brown – Stanford, Anthropology
    Lowell Dittmer – Berkeley, Political Science
    Lester Lee – President, Recortec Inc.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010
5:00 pm: Contentious Historical Interpretations “Punctuations: Taiwan in 1989, 1999, 2009”
Center for Chinese Studies, 370 Dwinelle Hall
    Liao Ping-Hui, Visiting Scholar from UC San Diego

Friday, April 9, 2010
4:00 pm: Final Consensus Report Presentation: “Actions to ensure peaceful Cross Strait Relations”
YWCA (Corner of Bancroft and Bowditch Ave.)

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email us at straittalk.berkeley@gmail.com.

Participate in the many interesting and insightful events offered by the Strait Talk Symposium hosted at UC Berkeley.  Remember, all events are FREE of charge and solely for the purpose of exploration, education, and change on the issue of the Taiwan Strait.

Pass the word along!  Will you become a Peacemaker?

From all of us on the Berkeley Strait Talk team, Congratulations! You have been selected from a highly competitive pool of qualified individuals to participate as an international delegate from your respective areas. As such, you will soon be meeting your fellow peers in ICR discussions, as well as interacting with highly regarded academic minds on the area of US-China-Taiwan relations.

Be proud of your accomplishment and success.  We hope to meet each and every one of you soon!

The application deadline for delegates from mainland China and Taiwan to the 2010 Symposium at Berkeley has been extended to February 7 at midnight Asia pacific time. Check the Apply page for more information and to download an application.

blogged by Ryan Ulrich, a member of the U.S. delegation

The first day of Strait talk, I have to say has been a success both from my own point of view and, I think, from the view point of all the delegates. I think we’re one day closer to completely resolving the cross straits wenti.

Today’s session started off with some an introduction by Tats and lead into the first session with individual discussion of different metaphors or objects that demonstrated the participant’s relationship and ideals for the symposium.

I was personally interested, and quite moved, by how so many members made personal connections to the strait talk symposium through their families members or family history.

I was also impressed by Tats’ expert ability to lead the dialogue. He got Jenny to dance in front of all of us and James to engage in some Taekwondo, which we later were told, were both analogies of the cross straits issue.

I think we really began to get into the meat of the symposium during our first exercise. By pretending the we represented the different countries of Indonesia and East Timor in their conflict, our goal seemed to be able to begin to challenge our assumptions of what the cross straits relations meant to us.

Read more »

What object or metaphor symbolizes the cross-Strait relationship for you?

Thus began the sixth Strait Talk Symposium, on a bright but chilly Providence morning. The fifteen delegates shared images that were sometimes complex and sometimes simple, poignant and humorous, personal and expansive. Whether the speaker emphasized unity, independence, or something in between, each story shared common threads of creativity and hopefulness. In one story, each group was bound to work together like the second, minute, and hour hands on a clock. They were likened to partners in a relationship, and to chopsticks, most useful in tandem but when they are held at different angles, not parallel. One delegate described the future as a waltz, while another compared it to a living and evolving language.

As a fly on the wall, I was overwhelmed by the genuine connection that each delegate expressed for the issues. The Strait Talk week is an opportunity to share fifteen remarkable stories, and to write a new, common chapter in each of them. Day 1 is a moment to embrace the potential for learning from each other and for planting seeds that will continue to grow as we set out across the world.

And it is also a day to recover from jet lag.

Today the Strait Talk Steering Committee is humming with activity in anticipation of the arrival of the delegates later on in the afternoon/evening. Although delegates will undoubtedly be exhausted from their travels, the excitement of meeting everyone for the first time during the group dinner at 7:30pm should ease back some of the weariness until a more convenient resting time, recharging the battery for an early morning ICR session tomorrow at 9:00am. It should be brilliant, and we have nothing but high hopes!

A few hours later…

It was certainly a lovely evening as everyone enjoyed excellent food, courtesy of Chenelle and Mr. Chin, and excellent company. From names, to thesis topics, conversation was not in short supply, and it felt like after a short couple of hours, friendships were already in the making. After dinner, all of us gathered ’round to introduce ourselves with humor, enthusiasm, and sincerity. And despite the exhaustion of all present, eyes shone brightly at the anticipation of all the week promised to be, as Sarah [project coordinator] detailed some administrative and logistical points. The evening wound down with the delegates leaving with their hosts and the steering committee cautiously righting the room, finally breaking with a tremendous sense of hope and accomplishment.

LeeAnn
2009 Taiwan ROC Delegation Coordinator

Thursday 5th November 2009. It’s the day before the delegates arrive in Providence for the 5th Strait Talk Symposium at Brown.

We’re going through admin work, logistics support, talking to Tats about ICR and trying to scramble for air-mattresses so that our delegates have something to sleep on. Honestly, I feel like if Strait Talk isn’t on everyone’s minds at this point in time then we haven’t been doing enough. Every time I sit down to answer my emails, it takes me about 2 hours. It’s like an email hydra phenomenon–for every one email that I send or reply to, another 2 pop up in my inbox!

So in between trying to brush up on my East Asian politics, making sure that we have enough paper plates and plastic knives, and reassuring guest speakers that we have their travel arrangements and their bookings, I’d say we’re doing pretty all right I’m looking forward to this Symposium. It doesn’t feel quite real yet, and it definitely doesn’t feel like the delegates are going to be arriving tomorrow. I’m hosting a few people in my living room, and it still needs to be cleaned up. But I’m sure that when the delegates all start flocking onto campus, then we’ll feel like the eleven months put into planning this is finally coming to some results.

Wish us luck everyone!

Sarah
Brown Coordinator 2009

The following is the schedule of public events during the 2009 Symposium at Brown. Guests and members of the Brown community are welcome to attend.

Monday, November 9
5:30pm: History of the Cross-Strait Conflict
Sidney Frank Life Sciences Auditorium
Leo Ching, Duke University
Murray Rubinstein, Baruch College

7pm: Perspectives on Cross-Strait International Relations
Sidney Frank Life Sciences Auditorium
Joseph Fewsmith, Boston University
Robert Shepherd, George Washington University

Tuesday, November 10
7pm: Questions of Identity
Barus and Holley 166
Robert Marsh, Brown University
Richard Kagan, Hamline University

Thursday, November 12
12pm: Final Consensus Document Presentation
Salomon 203
Presented by the Strait Talk at Brown 2009 Delegates