After receiving an MA degree in cultural heritage studies at Central European University (Budapest, Hungary), I started to work in Alishan Forest Railway (Chiayi, Taiwan), a heritage mountain railway line renowned for its landscape, techniques, and locomotives. I was mainly responsible for international affairs including academic networking, exchange programs, and global marketing. I also cooperated with Taipei National University of the Arts in oral history projects on the Alishan Forest Railway. In the following year, I worked in the Transitional Justice Commission (Taiwan) dealing with the institutionalization and social communication of the preservation of the dark heritage of the authoritarian regime in the late 20th century. Afterward, I switched back to field of railway heritage and started to work in the Preparatory Office of National Railway Museum. My main duty is to control the preparation progress and plan the overall organization and operation of the future museum.

My academic interests include the geography of heritage, cultural landscape, and cultural governance. My MA thesis is about the governance of cultural heritage in the Matsu Islands, Taiwan, where the interaction of war history and natural environment forms a wonderful cultural landscape. My experience in the MA program and degree provides me an insight into to what extent governance can help in cultural heritage and the spirit of the place. In the future, I would like to follow up on the discovering and preservation of the cultural landscape both in academia and in practice. 

Publication:

Chang, Ting-Chao. “Diverse heritage in the Matsu Islands, Taiwan: Linking a Fragmented Management.” MA diss., Central European University, 2020. https://sierra.ceu.edu/record=b1428493.

Chang, Ting-Chao. "Finding “the Guardians of the Railway”: Alishan Forest Railway Being the Core of a Regional Forestry Cultural Landscape." Taiwan Natural Science 41, no. 1 (2022): 58-65. (In Chinese)