CHEN JHEN THE ISLAND OF STRANGERS The Island of Strangers 3 Missing pieces of Taiwanese Identity The first series of photos taken in Taiwan, John Thomson, Lalung, Formosa, 1871, glass photonegative, wet collodion, 25.5x30.5cm. ABSTRACT 4 The attempt of the thesis is to clarify the inconclusive 5 argument of Taiwanese national identity. By examining the school textbooks and the landscape in the Taipei New Park, to seek for the connection between the current social circumstances and the history of oppression, which includes Japanese colonization and Chiang Kai Shek’s totalitarian. The first part elaborates the school textbooks by asking several questions: When the concept of history class came about in Taiwan? What is the initial purpose of the history class? How different the school textbooks are in the periods of Japanese colonization and Chiang’s regime, and how different authorities describe the same historical confrontation in totally opposite way. The second part investigates the landscape in Taipei New Park, and looks into the details of each element, the first radio station, the first museum, the politian statues and coconut trees: how these constructions lead us to adopt new habits and influence our identity, and how the elements relevant to the wave of colonization of the world. In the last part, a short description about how I, as an information designer, narrate history in different way from historians or other experts, and how to lead the investigation to a deign proposal. 8 INTRODUCTION 7 Who Were We And Who Will We Be STATE APPARATUS 20 Forming National Ideology in Mind 56 Forming National Ideology by Landscape 92 CONCLUSION Do Not Look at It Directly The first series of photos taken in Taiwan, John Thomson, Takaw harbour, 124 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES Formosa, 1871, glass photonegative, wet collodion, 25.5x30.5cm. CITED AND CONSULTED 8 INTRODUCTION 9 Who Were We And Who Will We Be For many of us from Taiwan, it has always been a mixed feeling to say “I am Taiwanese“. When I was a child, our school teacher taught us to be a “confident Chinese“. However, the television news and other media would address “mainland China“ as our enemy. And if someone asked me where I was from, I would answer confusedly “I am both Chinese and Taiwanese“. Formosa (Taiwan) before foreign invasion, At the time, of course I could not really understand the John Thomson, Lalung, Formosa, 1871, glass photonegative, wet collodion, 25.5x30.5cm. complicated and multiple meaning behind this simple question. But as I grow up, I found many Taiwanese of my generation share the same experience. To some extent, writing this thesis helps me answer the questions and resolve the confusion that I could not in the past. Moreover, with this thesis, I also wish to help Taiwanese of my generation to reunderstand and face their belonging, as well as to honestly coexist with the history of nowadays. John Thomson, Pepohoan girl, John Thomson, Pepohoan male, Baksa, Formosa, 1871, glass Baksa, Formosa, 1871, glass photonegative, wet collodion. photonegative, wet collodion. In 1895, Japan acquired Taiwan as its first formal 10 highly appreciate Japanese’ major construction 11 colony after a resounding victory in the Sino-Japanese projects in Taiwan. Some of them still refer to Japan as war. Fifty years later, in 1945, at the end of World War their motherland, including Taiwan’s former president II, the Republic of China (ROC) 1 led by China’s new Lee Teng-hui. 4 Two scenes from the movie“A Borrowed political regime Kuomintang (KMT) 2 took over Taiwan. Life“ 5 explained this kind of sentiment: Perhaps we can simply see the confusion and struggle for us to call ourselves Taiwanese as a result of the scene 1. Once my father took a peek at my Playboy dramatic political and cultural changes over the magazine and scolded me for learning bad things. I hundred year history. Nevertheless, as we give up and replied that I was learning English, but he glowered gain new identity again and again, must we become at me saying “American women are too big, Japanese confused and unsured of who we are? Does our identity women are much better, more delicate“ (this scene exists objectively? shows how the father yearn towards Japan and also points out the fever of learning English during 1950s Compared to Hong Kong, which was colonized by as a result of American’s aid of the time). United Kingdom for more than a hundred fifty years (1841-1941,1945-1997), Hong Kongese nowadays do not scene 2. While doing her homework, the daughter is to have such problem as “am I a Hong Kongese or a color the national flag. The father tried to help but he British?“ One can also say it is because Hong Kongese fills the sun on the flag with red that should have been and British are two totally different races. Nevertheless, white. The daughter cried and the father said in South Korea that was also colonized by Japan in the Taiwanese dialect “the sun should be red, or what else? same historical period as Taiwan (1910–1945) had a Have you ever seen the Japanese flag? What color is totally different emotion towards Japan’s dominance. it?“ Then the daughter replied with Mandarin “you Korea may be considered one of the most intense traitor! Wang Jingwei“ 6 anti-Japanese society in the world. 3 On the contrary, Taiwanese, especially the older generation, 1 ROC: Republic of China established 3 In BBC World Service Poll in 2007 5 The movie was wrote and directed at 1912. After Chinese Civil and 2009, South Korea and People's by Wu NienJen, A autobiographical War, retreated to Taiwan, ruled Republic of China were the only story about the life of a poor by KMT party and its leader ones whose majorities rate Japan family in the Taiwanese countryside General Chiang Kai-shek. negatively. during the 1940s and 1950s as the Japanese rule of the island 2 KMT: Kuomintang political party, 4 Former Taiwanese president Lee ends and nationalist forces which was a single-party once Teng-hui had referred to Japan, of Kwomintang arrive when the ruled Taiwan from 1945-1987. former colonial master of Taiwan, Communists take the mainland. as his ex-“motherland“ in the media. It may not be a coincidence that the same colonization 12 and process, we might trace the origin of these terms 13 in different contexts lead to be different results. and ideologies, and when the identity crisis started to Leo T. S. Ching, a Doctor from the University of ferment. If our identity is an artificial concept, what California, points out that “Its premise rests on the forms the connection and bonding between us? assumption that cultural and political identities, be they metropolitan or colonial, do not exist prior to the processes of colonialism.“ Before 1895, the idea of “Taiwanese“ referred to the Chinese migrants who lived in Southern Taiwan (Tainan). Until 1920 there is no evidence showing the word “Taiwanese“ being used to refer to residents of the whole island. Thus, the definition of “Taiwanese“ changed all the time. It is a fluid concept resulting from colonization and it does not exist objectively. Since “Taiwanese“ is not an objective existence, it maybe be worthwhile digging into how the idea of “Taiwan“, “Taiwanese“and “Taiwaneseness“ has been constructed. How these terms and categories have attempted to mediate, conceal and displace our contradictions of colonialism. This thesis tries to reexamine and comb through the process of changing identity, analyzing the different policies or methods of Japan and China to remove or recreate the national ideology. By examining this development 6 Wang was a close associate of Sun Yat-sen. Wang served as the head of state for this Japanese puppet government. The typical narratives often regard him as a traitor in the War of Resistance. In 1920s, Japanese period, the Japanese The movie is about Taiwanese daily life, the flag was risen in a high school in daughter is to color the national flag and then Taipei. sorce: www.fotoe.com fight with her father about their different National identities, Wu Nien Jen, A Borrowed Life, 1974, movie still. Flag of Japan. source: www.taipics.com/flags.php Flag of Republic of China. source: www.taipics.com/flags.php 18 19 source: plus.google.com/wm/2/108153100316135731147/posts/TNaRH2Y2LG2 source: zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 臺灣光復 source: pylin.kaishao.idv.tw/?m=200909 source: www.tonyhuang39.com/tony0551/tony0551.html source: www.chinayouth.org.hk/anti-japan/ victory60years/photo/tw_anti_jp/ source: distance.shu.edu.tw/taiwan/ch23/ch23_sec01.htm source: lifeofarooster.com/2014/04/16/taiwan-1940s/ source: zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 理蕃政策 The struggle of man against power is the 20 STATE APPARATUS 21 struggle of memory against forgetting. Forming National Ideology in Mind Milan Kundera This part of the research is about education and school in Taiwan. Before 1900, there was no such concept as “history class“. How did this idea suddenly come about after 1900? During hundred years of “history“ education, only few people questioned the purpose of it, even though it is an essential subject in Taiwan’s compulsory education now. What is the authority’s role going to be? A movement against school as a factory A member of the “Anti-Black Box Curriculum Movement“, Lin Guan Hua, committed suicide as a protest against the controversial content of a recently published high school textbook on 30th July 2015. The news shocked the society and the public started to take the protest seriously. The “Anti-Black Box Curriculum Movement“ was organized by students from high schools.