Heading to Taiwan with Curiosity (and No Plan)
Penn Global Seminar: Energy Security and Geopolitics
Chenyao, one of the Fall 2025 Penn Global Seminar Correspondents, shares her experience abroad during the Winter Break. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed.
My fall semester ended in a blur of last-minute studying, final exams, and a frantic dash to the airport to catch a fifteen-hour flight across the globe. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been ordering food in a language I barely speak, making and then canceling countless itineraries, and bouncing from city to city in an attempt to squeeze everything possible out of winter break. But now that it’s the new year, it’s finally starting to hit that I’m going to be in Taiwan for the next ten days.
Before taking this class, my preconceived notions of Taiwan were quite vague. All I really knew about it was mostly shaped by headlines, Tsou Shih-Ching’s new film Left-Handed Girl, and a high school teacher who disapproved of the Mandarin words I used for “cheese” and “homework.” But now, Taiwan is within reach, and I hope, ready to surprise me.
Like all fall classes, I committed to this PGS more than half a year ago. At the time, I didn’t think much beyond how exciting it would be to do something new. My driving goal throughout my time at Penn has been to say yes as often as possible, especially to experiences that push me outside familiar bubbles, and this program fit squarely into that mindset.
Unlike many of my classmates, I initially enrolled in this PGS not because of an interest in cross-strait relations, but to learn about renewable energy development. As an Earth & Environmental Science major and travel fanatic, this class seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something fun behind the ever-present guise of pre-professionalism. But as we slowly went through the syllabus, I found myself increasingly drawn to the politics. Though I only briefly considered if I enjoyed it enough to change my major entirely — the answer is, unfortunately, no — learning about the environment and energy systems through the framework of international security and domestic priorities gave me a new outlook on just how complicated a clean, just future is. I plan to take this opportunity not just to explore a brand new city and all the food and sights it has to offer, but to leave with a better understanding of the different perspectives involved in issues of governance, the environment, and the economy.
Even before the program officially begins, my exploration’s already started. I’ve wandered through a tiny night market, witnessed Taiwan’s “waiting craze” first-hand, and tried sugar apple — an expensive but deliciously tropical fruit — for the first time. As the rest of my classmates enter the same time zone as me, I’m eager to see how Taiwan complicates and expands the ideas that first brought me here.