Over the next few months we will be releasing videos of all the impassioned researchers based at the Taipei branch of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) to introduce their new research directions in Sinology and Taiwan Studies. Vincent Rollet is a researcher at The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China, Taipei branch based in Academica Sinica. His research is based around Identity, Security and Societal Dimensions of the Taiwan’s Foreign Policy against Infectious Diseases (2000-2008). Here, Vincent came to the Ricci Institute to introduce his research and reveals to us the role of public health and afflictuous diseases in international diplomacy, before looking at ways that Taiwan can have greater representation in international public health while it remains outside of the WHO.

While the last decades have been characterized by the acceleration of the emergence or re-emergence of infectious diseases, many governments have placed the fight against these diseases on their foreign policy agenda. Two main questions can be raised: what has been the nature of their foreign policy and which dynamics prompted or conditioned them?

To answer these questions and to contribute to the general debate on the link between « Foreign Policy » and « Health », my Phd research focused on the Taiwan case. It shows that despite the particular situation of Taiwan on the international scene, since 2000, its government has conducted a specific foreign policy to fight against infectious diseases which has taken several forms.

Calling upon the conceptual tools proposed by the Constructivist, Realist and Liberal streams of International Relations commonly used to analyse Foreign Policy, this thesis provides an original interpretation of this foreign policy. It also shows that corporative, role-type and collective identities, as well as exigencies of security and societal demands, represent the explicative factors of this foreign policy.

This research concludes that the Foreign Policy conducted by Taiwan between 2000 and 2008 in the fight against infectious diseases held identity, security and societal dimensions, which then displays the multidimensional aspect of a Foreign Policy in the field of Health.

我是許涼涼，今年三十八歲。我想我剛剛被甩了，不過我懷疑我可能還沒接受這件事。

「你可以抱我，我不怕你是有愛滋病的男生。」醫護出身的呂修女，帶著天主的愛，進到人人避之唯恐不及的監獄，為愛滋病犯點燃希望與自尊之燈。

柯媽媽簡直不敢相信這是真的。

她摯愛的大兒子，今天早上出門前，不是還開心地向她微笑揮手道別嗎？上個星期，這個貼心的孩子 ，不是還興高采烈地跟她分享學校生活的點點滴滴嗎？

這一切，不是都應該一如往常，繼續運轉下去嗎？怎麼才一個下午，原本好端端的寶貝兒子，就離開了這個世界、連再見也沒有說一聲？

隨著時間之流盤旋的生命，常於不知不覺中陷落，人們因而在虛幻與真實、名利與理想、遺憾與無悔間走失。透過虛擬的戲劇可以卸除現實的束縛，讓迷途的心找回應有的位置。

解嚴前後，台灣劇場透過自由創作，試圖衝破被壓抑的社會氛圍，一時之間風起雲湧，百家爭鳴。而今時空已然轉變，劇場聲音似漸顯微弱，他們又將如何走出自己的新方向？

解嚴前後，台灣劇場透過自由創作，試圖衝破被壓抑的社會氛圍，一時之間風起雲湧，百家爭鳴。而今時空已然轉變，劇場聲音似漸顯微弱，他們又將如何走出自己的新方向？

一個從小就喜歡模仿，無須別人教便會倒立的小男孩，長大後是什麼模樣？體魄健美、談吐斯文，包裹著一顆熾熱純真之心的黃明正，用倒立細說著他的馬戲寓言。

一個從小就喜歡模仿，無須別人教便會倒立的小男孩，長大後是什麼模樣？體魄健美、談吐斯文，包裹著一顆熾熱純真之心的黃明正，用倒立細說著他的馬戲寓言。

法國戲劇理論家亞陶，被譽為二十世紀劇場史的分水嶺，他所提出的殘酷劇反叛傳統理性、摧毀日常語言，並訴諸感官與直覺，以揭露生命的本質。而他自己的人生也正像一幕幕殘酷劇，上演著無止盡的詛咒與糾纏。