Once upon a time, a specter called the South has been haunting Taiwan, especiallythe academic field. Historically, sociological institutions in Taiwan are concentrated in the Taipei metropolitan area while there are only a few located in Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi and Yilan. Uneven spatial development and distribution has led to a hegemonic viewpoint that that Taipei Metropolis is the epitome of the Taiwan society, eg., consumerism in Taiwan has been simplified as the shopping experience at Taipei 101 building, Taipei MRT is seen as a newly emerging metropolitan experience, annual gay and lesbian parade in Taipei is equivalent to LGBT civil rights movement in Taiwan, and the direct flight links with China has become bilateral affairs between Taipei and Shanghai. Other Taiwan regions are vaporized in these discourses. Stereotyped by the mainstream mass media located in Taipei, central and southern Taiwan is only the hometown for lunar new year, while the eastern is the backyard for vacation only. In other words, regions outside Taipei are nothing new to explore.
    Southern Sociology as a revolution should have been set off much earlier rather than nowadays. Not only aiming at redressing the imbalance between the north and the south, Southern Sociology also fundamentally questions the existing production of knowledge in Taiwan. It calls for reconstructing a new knowledge system that links sociology knowledge and society.
We Flag three “South”.
    We are located in the Geographical South. This spatial proximity allows our local participation and observation to accurately understand the life beat of the grass-root people in the south, as well as to represent the local social experiences ignored by the North.
    We are concerned about the Social South, the disadvantaged ethnic, class, and gender groups in a society. Not only for humanitarian reason, paying attention to the voices of silenced groups also means our rebellion to domination, and the demand for great social transformation.. we perceive that domination implies resistance. The gathering and mobilization of the disadvantage groups is nothing more than an omen of the next social transformation.
    We hold the Global South vision. To comprehend the south in both geographic and social Southern Taiwan, we have to start from the fact that Taiwan is located in the Global South. Taiwan was the southern frontier of China Empire, southern springboard to Southeast Asia for Japan Empire, manufacture processing base for American capitalism, and has become an integral part of East Asian economy. Taiwan society is constantly shaped by external forces. With such a contextual understanding of its development can we properly unravel the multiple meanings of 'Taiwan experiences'.
Research Orientations of Southern Sociology
Research orientations proposed by Southern Sociology are:
1. Glocal and Locobal Orientation
    In the rural South Taiwan, Vietnamese restaurants owned by female migrants have become a part of Taiwanese cuisine; some traditional groceries have been transformed to sell daily necessaries from Southeast Asia to serve the migrant workers from Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Several decades ago ambitious youngsters left for Taipei cosmopolitan to explore their dreams, while nowadays many leave for Saigon, Penang, Jakarta, Dongguan or Suzhou to be expatriates, and experience the new global lifestyle. To resist or to accept, to lament or to cheer, the isolated and slow-pacing peasant society no longer exists. Local has to face rampant global forces imposed on it, and local communities are tightly linked with global cities.
     Southern Sociology believes that Taiwan is Asian Taiwan, and Global Taiwan, too. Globalization is probably a new and trendy term, but to Taiwanese people it is definitely not a new phenomenon. Taiwanese elites have tried to consolidate their power in the name of globalization with their economic and cultural capital, but ordinary people is not passive, either. They engage globalization in the daily life, eg., cross-border marriages, expatriation work, or migrant domestic workers hiring, which have become a part of our contemporary social life. Globalization has been described as forces sweeping out national boundaries and local characteristics, but such a discourse ignores the hard fact that social experiences are always produced in local places. So, to have a meaningful exploration on indigenous life does not mean locking up our door and being ignorant to the outside world. Instead, researching local development is a gateway to investigate and examine the dialectical relations between the local and global.
2. Critical Orientation
    From the 1979 Formosa Incident to the 2005 migrant workers' riots at Kaohsiung MRT, Southern Taiwan has produced different kinds of social movement, and to take the lead in reforming Taiwanese society. For examples, numerous large-scale trade unions in Kaohsiung always lead the Taiwan labour movement; environment protection groups in the South cooperate to fight against deteriorating environment, proceeding the Green Revolution of the South; rural people in different local places reconstruct their villages and social relations, which converges to the Community Reconstruction Movement. Southern Taiwan never has inferiority complex, instead, distant from central power makes reflexive thinking possible, and thus it owns the potential to blow out the archaic social structures. Southern Taiwan never mimicries the ruling blocks, and never asks for mercy from the North. Rather, Southern Taiwan stands on the solid ground to strive for their rights with hands rather than with lips.
What exists is not always reasonable. Echoing the rebellious spirits of South Taiwan, Southern Sociology questions the present social situations. As Peter Berg pointed out that the first inspiration of sociology is that society does not look like what it is, Southern Sociology opposes the view that “society is what it looks like”, which has concealed oppressions in the uneven world. In addition to uncovering such oppressions, Southern Sociology also explores the possibility of delineating a more desirable social system as well as a praxis to this vision. The trajectory in the past has explained the present while the forces in the meantime would decide the blueprint of the future. Devoted as a contributive force, Southern Sociology will actively participate in shaping the future.
3. Knowledge as Craftsmanship Orientation
    Similar to other disciplines, sociology in Taiwan also encounters massive pressure from efficiency-oriented management. When the rules are institutionalized, research staffs are forced to conform to do different kinds of unproductive works. On the one hand, these changes are reasonable to some extent, which could produce delicate knowledge for the academy and the general public. Yet, on the other hand, such a system may oppress the free space to explore non-mainstream knowledge. To meet the evaluation standards scholars are largely confined to working on journal paper issues. More and more works are 'small, slim and sweet' to sell in the academic market.
    Southern Sociology opposes the trend of mass production of sociology knowledge. It encourages the classical mode of craftsmanship in research. C. Wright Mills criticized methodology fetishism, which reduces all sociological problems resolutions to the technical use of methods. Instead of focusing on the research methods, Southern Sociology believes that comprehensive understanding of research object and dialogue with current knowledge system will help to propose meaningful insights, and to contribute to sociological knowledge.
4. Asian Studies Orientation
    In recent years, there is less discussion about indigenization of sociology. It does not mean indigenization has lost its attraction but is just seen as a matter of course. The initial request on indigenization research addressed two phenomenon at that time. On the one hand, due to the fact that western scholars were not able to explore close-door China, Taiwan was seen as a substitute of “Chinese” or the “Chinese society”. On the other hand, Western theories and concepts were applied to Taiwan in a rather dogmatic way, and thus the unique Taiwan social characteristics were largely ignored. Yet, along with rising Taiwanese subjectivity and consciousness, the idea of 'Taiwan as the China substitute' has vanished. Nowadays more and more sociology scholars have expanded their research into Southeast Asia and other Asian countries, which reflects the confidence and aggressiveness in Taiwan's academy. We believe that if we can manage to study local society, we would certainly be able to expand our research field into other societies.
     Nevertheless, to correct the problem of incompatibility of Western theories and local Taiwan social formation, the indigenization movement brings an unintentional effect, ie., some local phenomenon is regarded as Taiwanese unique if Western theory is not applicable. Assuming such an uniqueness could be overcorrection, and forfeit the possibility of multi-national comparison or be trapped in particularism. In fact, many local phenomenon such as small and medium-sized enterprises, local political factions, or guanxi also exists in other societies. Responding to this, Southern Sociology advocates active participation in the international sociology community to share common experience with our academic colleagues, and to disseminate local research output to global community. We believe that this way would enable us to observe Taiwan's experiences reflexively, and could avoid the dilemma between universalism and particularism.
The Call from Southern Sociology
    Being the first Graduate Institute of Sociology of national university located south of the Zhuoshuixi River, we have been bravely playing the role of the Other for the North. We look forward to working together with those scholars and students who share our vision to contribute to the sociology community in Taiwan and Asia.
    We believe that “thinking” and “doing” should be put into work simultaneously. So in our master degree course, training students to be independent researchers is our ultimate goal. In addition to required courses, Sociological Theory and Research Method, we do not require many courses. Through intense interactions with teachers in and outside classroom, and through the practices of fieldwork for thesis, students in different stages could learn research issues, theoretical arguments, research method application, and in the end, students will become independent.

Resume：
Dr. WANG , Hong-zen
Ext 5655 E-Mail:hongzen@gmail.com
Current Position: Professor and Chair, the Graduate Institute of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University
Academic Background: Ph. D. Sociology, Australia National University
Experience:
AIEJ Scholarship, Chiba University, Japan (Academic International Exchange, Japan) Executive Secretary to the Secretary General, Executive Yuan (the Cabinet), TAIWAN Postdoctoral Research Fellow, PROSEA, Academia Sinica Assistant Professor, Division of Futures Studies, Tamkang University
Feb 2002 to Jul 2003, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University.
From Feb 2003, Co-director of Taiwan Studies Center, National Chung Hsing University.
From Aug 2003, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University.
From August 2004, Associate Professor, Director of the Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, National Chi Nan University.
From February 2006, Professor, the Graduate Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, National Chi Nan University.
From August 2007, Professor, Director of the Graduate Institute of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN.
Research Interests: Overseas Investment , Vietnamese Studies, Migration Studies, Economic Sociology
Publication:
　

Dr. HSIN-HUANG MICHAEL HSIAO
Ext:5651 E-Mail: michael@gate.sinica.edu.tw
Current Position:
Joint Appointment Professor of the Graduate Institute of Sociology, National Sun Yat-sen University
Academic Background:
Ph.D. Sociology, State University of New York at Buffalo 1979
Experience:
National Policy Advisor to the President of ROC (Taiwan) (1996-2006).
Executive Director (1994-2009), Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship.
Standing Supervisor, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (2003-2009)
President, Taiwan Association of Southeast Asian Studies (TASEAS) (2005-2009)
Councilor, Council for Hakka Affairs, Executive Yuan of ROC (Taiwan) (2001-2009)
President, International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) (2003-2004)
Chairman, Advisory and Monitoring Committee on the Privatization of Public Enterprise, Executive Yuan of ROC (2004-2005, 2007-2008)
Associate Research Fellow (1979-1983), Research Fellow (1983-1995),
Chairman (1980-1982), and Deputy Director (1989-1994),
Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.
Associate Director (1994-1996), Director (1996-2001), Program for Southeast Asian Area Studies (PROSEA), Academia Sinica.
Policy Advisor, Executive Yuan of ROC (Taiwan) (2007-2008)
Director (2001-2002), Asia-Pacific Research Program (APARP), Academia Sinica.
Associate Professor (1980-1984), Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University.
President (1992-1993), Taiwanese Sociological Association.
Member of the National Unification Council (1997-2000).
Member, Presidential Advisory Committee on Cross-Strait Relations (2000-2002)
Member of the Board of Directors, Public Television Service (PTS) (1998-2001)
Councilor, Council on National Sustainable Development, Executive Yuan of ROC (Taiwan) (1999-2008).
Member of the Board of Directors, National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF) (1998-2001).
Chairman of the Board, Foundation for Excellent Journalism Award(2004.11-2008.4)
President, Institute of National Development (IND) (2000-2002).
Councilor, Government Reform Council, The Office of the President of ROC (Taiwan) (2002-2003).
Councilor, Council for Nuclear Free Homeland, Executive Yuan of ROC (Taiwan) (2003-2005)
Research Interests: Sociology of Development (Asia-Pacific Development), Middle Classes (East and Southeast Asia), Social Movements, Civil Society and New Democracy, Environmental Sociology (Environmental Movement, Sustainable Development), Non-Profit Organizations and Foundations.
Publication: