Chang Wei-an: A sociologist who constructs global Hakka images

Hakka sociologist Chang Wei-an

Chinese Name: 張維安

Born: 1955

Birthplace: Miaoli County (Northern Taiwan)

Traditionally, Hakka studies mostly stayed within the realm of investigations into Hakka origins, language and customs. For sociologist Chang Wei-an, the present and future of Hakka people is something he cares the most. With his background in sociology, he takes Hakka studies to a high level of academic research. He is also committed to the construction and integration of knowledge systems in global Hakka research. Through the study of the socio-economic status and self-identity of Hakkas around the world, he explores the diversity and the future of Hakka people.

After earning a doctorate in sociology from Tunghai University, he went to Tsinghua University as a faculty member and began researching and expanding the Hakka cultural map. Later, he was fortunate to be given the opportunity to study in the United States. Under the academic atmosphere of the United States, he pondered the possibility of developing information sociology, and promoted the establishment of the Taiwan Society for Information Social Research and the publication of related journals.

In 2003, the College of Hakka Studies was established at National Central University (in Taoyuan, Taiwan). Chang felt that the Hakka movement needed further academic research and that academic methods were needed to address various Hakka topics. As a Hakka scholar, he willingly took up the responsibility of serving as dean of the College of Hakka Studies and was seconded to Central University for two years to help build some of the College of Hakka Studies’ systems. That formed his lifelong relationship with Hakka research.

Afterwards, Chang returned to Tsinghua University to continue as the dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences for six years. The "Monsoon Asia" program promoted by the university’s Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at that time provided the opportunity to establish an academic network of Hakka research scholars in Southeast Asia. In this environment, the opportunity for global Hakka research gradually brewed. After Chang entered National Chiao Tung University, he used its International Center for Hakka Studies as the base to integrate some scholars from three Hakka academies to conduct Hakka research. He also gradually established the global Hakka research structure through projects the Hakka Affairs Council commissioned him to carry out.

In the past, few people treated Hakka research as an academic field. However, when Professor Chang conducted Hakka studies in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and China, he discovered that Hakka research had become an interdisciplinary knowledge system. Inspired by Hakka research, academics in this field began to reflect on what they had previously seen as familiar Hakka, re-examined parts of the Hakka diaspora that have been neglected, and promoted visits and exchanges of Hakka people from all over the world. Without Hakka research, there would be no Hakkas. Taiwan’s Hakka research and academic communities are exerting a positive impact on the flourishing development of Hakkas around the world. In 2017, Chang won the Hakka Contribution Award for his academic achievement in Hakka studies.