Social and Economic History Group Lecture

Speaker:
Dafydd Fell (Director of Centre of Taiwan Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)

Topic:
The Twilight Years of Taiwan’s Sugar Railways
臺灣糖業鐵路的黃昏歲月

Date and Time:
Tuesday, December 22, 2026. 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Place:
Room 802 at ITH

Language:
English

Registration:
Click Here to Register (redirecting to Chinese version)

Please Note:

1. To participate, please register online in advance. Registration is open until December 16, 2026 (Wednesday). Successful registrants will receive an email notice. Walk-ins are welcome but lunch will not be available for those without prior registration.
2. If you are unable to attend after registration, please let us know in advance and prevent from being excluded from our future events. (Contact: sehrgith@gmail.com)
3. This lecture will be held in a physical format. If it is changed to an online format for any reason, we will notify later.

Abstract:
In their heyday, Taiwan’s sugar railways were the world’s most extraordinary narrow gauge industrial railway system. Its tracks criss-crossed southern and central Taiwan and the track length of 3,000 kilometres exceeded the national railway’s network. With sugar being Taiwan’s largest export, by bringing sugar cane from the field to the mills and then sugar products to the ports, the sugar railways played a critical role in Taiwan’s economic miracle. The railways were not limited to transporting sugar and instead carried a very diverse range of freight. It also had a passenger network of 600 kilometres that included limited stop express trains. This lecture focuses on the twilight years of Taiwan’s sugar railways in the 1990s when the still extensive system was entering a period of rapid closures. Professor Dafydd Fell will tell the story of Taiwan’s sugar railways using a collection of previously unpublished photographs. He’ll also show the human side of this remarkable story by bringing in insights from extensive interviews with retired sugar railway workers.

Speaker's Bio:
Dafydd Fell is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and Director of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies. He has been active in developing the field of Taiwan studies in the UK and beyond. He helped establish the European Association of Taiwan Studies in 2004 and was the Association’s Secretary General for 8-years. At SOAS, he established the MA Taiwan Studies programme, and serves as the series editor for the Routledge Research on Taiwan Series.