Translating Taiwan

2.30pm – Pay What You Can £6.00 / £4.00

A journey of languages across museums and heritage sites with Michelle Min-Hsiu Liao

What does it mean to translate a museum, and how might this be understood in the context of Taiwan? This talk offers a relaxed late-afternoon journey through museums and heritage sites in Taiwan, exploring how the island’s languages interact with other semiotic modes in museums to shape visitors’ experiences. Drawing on research in linguistics and translation studies, the presentation examines how multilingual signage, material objects, and spatial layout contribute to the stories that museums tell. Through examples from Taiwan’s museums, the talk will also introduce audiences to the island’s rich linguistic and cultural landscape. It will explore how museums and heritage sites represent, negotiate, and celebrate Taiwan’s layered linguistic and cultural heritage. This talk welcomes everyone — whether you are simply interested in languages and museums, or have visited, plan to visit, or would just like to learn more about Taiwan. Combining academic insight with illustrative visual examples, the talk offers an engaging way of exploring language, museums, heritage, and Taiwan.

Dr Min-Hsiu Liao (廖敏秀) is Associate Professor at Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Her research focuses on multilingual practices in multimodal spaces, including museums, heritage sites, and urban linguistic landscapes. She is the author of the monograph Translation on Display (Routledge, 2025).