Territoriality and Land Use Politics of Mountain Agriculture in Taiwan

Asia Pacific Viewpoint Vol. 59, No. 3, 2018 ISSN 1360-7456, pp349–367 Apples in action: Territoriality and land use politics of mountain agriculture in Taiwan Po-Yi Hung and Hui-Tsen Hsiao Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: This essay outlines the symbolic and material transformation of mountain agriculture in Taiwan by tracing the historical trajectories of temperate fruit production, and of apple growing in particular. Specifically, we look at the area of Lishan, a major production centre for apples and other temperate fruits in Taiwan’s Cen- tral Mountain Range in order to explore the relationship between the mountain agriculture and the politics of territorialisation. Focusing on the post-war era, we argue that the development of mountain agriculture in Taiwan, and upland fruit growing in particular, has operated as a ‘more-than-human political technology’. The territory of Lishan is not just a passive geographical space, but engaged in a process of becoming, which re-makes the mountain areas of Taiwan into ‘apple zones’ both spatially and socially. The spatial dimension centres on pro- cesses of political territorialisation, economic deterritorialisation and combined reterritorialisations whereby apple plantations have transformed the landscape from one focused on strategic politics to one embedded within development and market frameworks which entail their own particular forms of politics. The social dimensions are centred on the politics of forging connections among different elements circulating through the mountain areas of Taiwan, including apples, soldiers, transport infrastructures and agricultural policies. Keywords: assemblage, Kuomintang veterans, mountain agriculture, Taiwan, territory Introduction past strategies of the state to exert political control over upland areas. Agriculture has never In Taiwan, ‘mountain agriculture’ (gaoshan non- been a simple matter of transforming rugged gye) has various, sometimes contradictory, con- mountains into productive farmlands, but has notations. On one hand, especially during the also served as a way of integrating the mountain post-war era, mountain agriculture has symbo- areas under state sovereignty and territorial con- lised the modernisation of Taiwan’s agricultural trol. Accordingly, while any account of moun- sector. For many, the transformation of mountain agriculture must address the conflict tain areas from rugged wilderness into modern between economic development and environ- farms has been a source of national pride (Liu, mental conservation, this paper seeks to move 1974). Opposed to this is a view of mountain beyond this binary opposition. Specifically, we agriculture as a source of environmental degra- aim to understand mountain agriculture from dation. This view frames the environmental the perspective of territorial politics. problems of mountain areas – such as land- This paper outlines the symbolic and material slides, soil erosion and water eutrophication – as transformation of mountain agriculture in Tai- side effects of mountain agriculture (Hu, 1988). wan by tracing the historical trajectories of tem- Recently the view regarding mountain agricul- perate fruit production, and of apple growing in ture as a sign of environmental degradation has particular. Specifically, we look at the area of intensified and this debate continues. Lishan, a major production centre for apples and These conflicting representations of mountain other temperate fruits in Taiwan’s Central Moun- agriculture do not, however, tell the full story. tain Range, to explore the relationship between Mountain agriculture in Taiwan has never been mountain agriculture and the politics of territor- purely a matter of economic development ver- ialisation. Focusing on the post-war era, we sus environmental conservation. Rather, today’s argue that the development of mountain agricul- mountain landscapes are also the product of ture in Taiwan, and upland fruit growing in © 2018 Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd doi:10.1111/apv.12194 P.-Y. Hung and H.-T. Hsiao particular, has operated as a ‘more-than-human (Delaney, 2005). In line with the greater atten- political technology’ (Hung and Baird, 2017). tion being paid to relational flows of popula- To mount this argument, we first proceed from tions and goods, geographers (and social the view that territory as a political technology scientists in general) have urged scholars to (Elden, 2010) encompasses both a political-legal reconsider the previous conceptions of territory dimension whereby the state enacts its power to as a boundary-fixed space and reservoir of state maintain order within its zone of territorial sover- power (Allen and Cochrane, 2007). For exam- eignty, and also a political-technical dimension ple, scholars working on critical geopolitics whereby surveying and mapping techniques pro- (e.g. Ó Tuathail, 1996; Dodds and Atkinson, duce a ‘legible’ territory for both political control 2000) have argued that the received view of ter- and the operation of the market economy. Then, ritory as a pre-given ‘container’ (e.g. Mackinder, we proceed with idea of assemblage (Deleuze 1904; Cohen, 1973) implies a form of environ- and Guattari, 1987; see also DeLanda, 2006) tak- mental determinism. In addition, the static and ing apples as the agent which puts territoriality in bounded concept of territory has been de- the process of becoming. emphasised in human geography and other After this introduction, we will outline our the- social sciences over recent years as increasing oretical approach and explain how viewing terri- attention is given to issues such as migration, tory as a more-than-human political technology diaspora, displacement and movement offers new insights into the role of apples (and (Escobar, 2008). These trends are in line with a temperate fruits in general) in the development of shift in disciplinary focus from stable and Taiwan’s mountain areas. Next, we briefly bounded conceptions of territory to dynamic explain our research methods. The remainder of flows of populations that live lives in relational the paper looks at three post-war historical connection (Amin, 2002; Murdoch, 2006). epochs and their corresponding territorial poli- Yet taking a relational approach need not be tics. First, we examine the phase from the early in conflict with territorial thinking (Jones, 2009) 1950s to the early 1960s. After the Chinese civil and rethinking received definitions of territory war, the Republic of China’s (ROC) Chinese does not mean that we can ignore the role of Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) govern- the state as it enacts political operations to terri- ment retreated to Taiwan from China, bringing in torialise its otherwise abstract sovereignty its wake a large number of soldiers and other ref- (Jonas, 2012). Instead, as Elden (2013) argued, ugees. We show how during this period, the territory remains a ‘political technology’ Nationalist government used mountain agricul- employed by the state to survey its land and ture as a vehicle for a process of political territor- control its terrain. Territory, as a ‘political tech- ialisation that transformed demobilised soldiers nology’, must be understood, then, through its into farmers. Next, we look at the period from the relation to both land and terrain. Elden (2013: late 1960s to the late 1970s. By investigating the 804) defines land as ‘a relation of property, a changing representations of apples, we show finite resource that is distributed, allocated and how political territorialisation also led to stronger owned, a political-economic question’. By con- connections between mountain areas and the trast he defines terrain as ‘a relation of power, market economy, earlier political territorialisation with a heritage in geology and military, the con- paving the way for a new phase of market deter- trol of which allows the establishment and ritorialisation. Finally, we explore how, more maintenance of order’, and therefore a ‘politi- recently, environmental governance has spurred cal-strategic question’ (Elden, 2010). Moreover, a form of reterritorialisation that mixes state Elden pushes further to argue that ‘land’ and power and market forces to recontest the politics ‘terrain’ are necessary, but not sufficient, to of land use in mountain agriculture zones. thoroughly capture the meanings of territory. Instead, ‘measure[ment] and control – the technical and the legal – need to be thought along- Territory as a more-than-human political side land and terrain’ (Elden, 2010: 811–812). technology In other words, territory as a political technol- Territory has long been an important analytical ogy requires a political-legal state apparatus that concept in political geography and beyond can enact power to maintain order inside its 350 © 2018 Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd Apples in action territorial zone of sovereignty. But as a political sites’ (Moore, 2005: 332, note 116). However, technology, it also comprises the political- critiques concerning assemblage point to its fre- technical techniques of surveying and mapping quent occlusion of ‘power relations, historical that produce a ‘legible’ territory in the first place sedimentations and their forceful effects’ (Scott, 1998). (Moore, 2005: 24). Here, it is useful to recon- While acknowledging the significance of tak- sider Elden’s

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