UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE On the Road, Above the Sea: Post-geographic and Bodily Epistemologies in Taiwanese Travelogues DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in East Asian Languages and Literatures by Ssu-Fang Liu Jessie Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Bert Mittchell Scruggs, Chair Professor Hu Ying Professor Kyung Hyun Kim 2018 © 2018 Ssu-Fang Liu Jessie DEDICATION To My family, friends, and the island of Taiwan. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v CURRICULUM VITAE vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: From Visual Fantasies to Bodily Trajectories: 29 The Insular Epistemology of Around-the-Island Journeys in Taiwanese Visual Culture CHAPTER 2: Contested Mountains: 76 Constructing National and Ecological Intimacy in Taiwanese Pilgrimages to Tibet CHAPTER 3: Global Journey, Hybrid Love: Affective Epistemology and Bodily Negotiation of the Taiwanese Queer 113 CONCLUSION AS DEPARTURE 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 Hiroshige Utagawa’s forty-ninth station, Tsuchiyama 40 Figure 1.2 Yoshida’s panoramic map of Taiwan 46 Figure 1.3 Yoshida’s “Taiwan Shrine” 47 Figure 1.4 Yoshida’s “the Cape Eluanpi” 48 Figure 1.5 Yoshida’s “Mount Ali” 49 Figure 1.6 Brother Wang and Liu Tour Taiwan 55 Figure 1.7 Island Etude 69 Figure 1.8 The Most Distant Course 72 Figure 2.1 The panoramic scene in Kora 101 Figure 2.2 The low-angled lens focusing on Zhang’s feet 102 Figure 2.3 The low-angled lens focusing on Zhang’s face 102 Figure 2.4 The panoramic scene in Kora 102 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In writing this dissertation, I have accumulated many debts along the way. My dissertation committee members, Professors Bert Scruggs, Hu Ying, and Kyung Hyun Kim have provided me rich resources and critical insights to construct the entire research project. I particularly express my gratitude to my advisor, Professor Scruggs, who relentlessly encouraged me to hold on to sincerity and optimism in the research that is significant to my identity. He patiently provided research suggestions from my first ideas to the completion of this big project. I also feel incredibly thankful to Professor Hu, who provided me with kind help and support in all aspects. Her wisdom towards both research and life has become a paradigm for me. Moreover, I am very appreciative of Professor Kim’s aid in offering relevant readings and suggestive critiques without any hesitation. I regard the challenges that he provided as crucial to construct the theoretical framework of this dissertation. It has been my fortune to pursue my Ph.D. within the department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at UC Irvine, where the faculty is always there to help graduate students to be confident and successful. During the years at UCI, I also received radical and solid academic training in Gender and Sexuality Studies. I am extremely thankful to Professor Jennifer Terry, who not only shaped my thoughts in queer studies, but also observed my teaching and provided pedagogical critiques. In addition, I greatly benefited from Professor Catherine Sameh’s and Professor Lilith Mahmud’s stimulating seminars. Moreover, Professor Ackbar Abbas in the Comparative Literature Department and Professor Lucas Hilderbrand in Film and Media Studies both offered valuable assistance during my qualifying exam. I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to the Chinese and Japanese teaching faculty at the department of East Asian Literatures and Languages. The Chinese language coordinator, Ruomei Hsieh laoshi, always offered me with valuable, efficient, and practical teaching strategies. She revised all my teaching demonstrations in order to improve the quality of my teaching. Without her help, I would not feel confident and professional in teaching Chinese. Jessica Liu laoshi and Ying Yang laoshi contributed in providing me with practical and experienced advice in both Chinese teaching and life. In the Japanese track, Eiko Haraguchi sensei not only perfectly epitomized how devoted, energetic, and passionate a teacher can be, but also generously revised my teaching plans. Ayako Nagai sensei kindly allowed me to sit in her classes to observe and learn her teaching strategies. I admire all these teachers’ professionalism and am deeply indebted to their warm guidance. I would like to use this opportunity to thank the administrator of the graduate program in my department, Stephanie Isnali, who always provides important information and timely aid in an organized manner. I also gained incredible assistance from Professor Shampa Mazumdar in the Sociology Department, who largely increased my spiritual quality of life. This research was generously funded by the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, Dean’s Fellowships, a Summer Dissertation Fellowship, and the Tien Endowment Fellowship at UC Irvine. In addition, I gained financial support from Center for Asian Studies and Humanities Commons at UC Irvine, Minister of Education of Taiwan, and my mother, Huei-Ien Lee. All this support enabled me to keep stable writing progress without worrying about research expenses and the high living cost in southern California. Words cannot describe how significant they are to my graduate student life. This journey of writing the dissertation was lonely, but my friends have made this journey meaningful and unforgettable. I thank all the graduate students at the department of East Asian v Languages and Literatures, particularly Eunah Cho and Jean Tsui. I also feel lucky to have met these friends during my graduate student life: Tom Le, Li-Wen (Joy) Wang, Fan-Ting Cheng, Insky Chen, and Stephanie Lin. I want to particularly thank the friends who have been accompanying me for more than ten years, Hsin-Pei Tseng, Jeng Yun, and Cheng-Hsin Liu. Without their emotional support, I may not be as determined and optimistic as I am now. I am indebted most to my mother and my life partner, Daniel. Their unreserved tenderness, encouragement, and love make miracles happen. vi CURRICULUM VITAE Ssu-Fang Liu Jessie 2005 B.A. in Chinese Literature, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei. 2010 M.A. in Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University, Taipei. 2012-15 Instructor of Basic and Advanced Chinese Language, University of California, Irvine. 2013-15 Teaching Assistant in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of California, Irvine 2014 Lecturer, East Asian Studies 40: Travel and Cinema University of California, Irvine 2017 Teaching Assistant in Social Ecology, Religious Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Irvine 2017-18 Certificates of “Creative Course Design” and “Excellent Teaching,” The Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, University of California, Irvine 2018 Certificate of “CIRTL Associate,” Graduate Division, University of California, Irvine 2018 Certificate of “Graduate Feminist Emphasis,” Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Irvine 2018 Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures University of California, Irvine FIELD OF STUDY Modern to Contemporary Chinese Literature and Cinema; Colonial and Contemporary Taiwan; Environmental Writing and EcoCinema; Feminism and Queer studies, East Asian Popular Culture vii PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles “From Visual Discoveries to Bodily Trajectories: The Insular Epistemology of Around-the- Island Journeys In Taiwan Cinema,” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Issue 3.2, 2017. “Global Journey, Hybrid Love: Bodily Negotiation and Affective Epistemology of Taiwanese Queer,” Journal of Taiwanese Literature Studies (under review). Conference Anthology “Circle, Bodies, and Landscapes: On Affective Structures in Contemporary Taiwanese Road Movies,” in Inter-Flow and Trans-Border: Ocean, Environment, and Cultural Landscape, Taiwan Studies Series, Vol.6, pp87-98, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2013. Critical Essays and Book Reviews “The Lost Stars: Discussing the Emotional Politics of American Road Movies,” Film Appreciation Journal, Volume 33 No.4, pp. 84-88, Taiwan Film Institution, 2016. “The Discourse of Love During the May Fourth Movement,” China Times, May 8th, 2016. “The Allegory of Self-Repetition: Discussing Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being,” Ink: monthly literature magazine, December 2016. “Young Artists in Japan: Modern Sensibilities in Formosa and Wu Yong-Fu’s Neo-Sensationist Writing,” Taiwan Literature Review, Volume 9 Issue 1, pp.281-298, Aletheia University Press, 2009. “Spells and Enchantment: Mad Narratives of Shi Shu-Qing and Chen Syue,”Journal of Language and Literature Studies, Issue 15, pp.207-239, National Taipei University of Education Press, 2009. Creative Writing Hide and Seek, Rye Field Press, 2015. viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION On the Road, Above the Sea: Post-geographic and Bodily Epistemologies in Taiwanese Travelogues By Ssu-Fang Liu Jessie Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Literatures University of California, Irvine, 2018 Professor Bert Mittchell Scruggs, Chair Treating the representations of travel as the manifestations of cultural patterns, “On the Road, Above the Sea” traces how a cultural phenomenon emerges, flourishes, and vanishes, and explores how human emotions and perceptions are constructed by this cultural pattern. It uses the lens of travel to examine how geographical and bodily epistemologies construct individual identities, ethnic kinships, and cultural logics in Taiwan. In