University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Traveling Abroad, Writing Nationalism, and Performing in Disguise: People on the Japanese Colonial Boundaries, 1909-1943 Huang-Wen Lai University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lai, Huang-Wen, "Traveling Abroad, Writing Nationalism, and Performing in Disguise: People on the Japanese Colonial Boundaries, 1909-1943" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1824. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1824 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1824 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Traveling Abroad, Writing Nationalism, and Performing in Disguise: People on the Japanese Colonial Boundaries, 1909-1943 Abstract This dissertation investigates the relationships and discourse among “in-between” people under Japanese colonial rule. Featuring three case studies including literary travalers in Manchuria, colonial writers in Taiwan, and transnational performers in East Asia that each provide multiple evidentiary examples, this study is centered on three dimensions of colonial discourse that deliberately challenged normative identity, nationality, and coloniality: writing as empowerment of local authors, traveling as a project of identity and state building, and cultural performance as imperial propaganda. By examining specific instances in which colonial writers and performers such as Natsume Sōseki, Yosano Akiko, Satō Haruo, Nishikawa Mitsuru, and Ri Kōran in Taiwan and Manchukuo engaged in colonial discourse, this dissertation re-contextualizes and fully portrays the relationships between colonizer and colonized, empire and colonies and, most importantly, human beings and society. Chapter One argues that Sōseki and Yosano’s travel writing not only reveals their ambition to shape the empire but also provides their opinions that reconstructed the borderlines of the Japanese empire. Chapter Two examines the views of colonial identity and binaries through Satō and Nishikawa’s journeys and literary works of Taiwan. Chapter Three analyzes voices and performances from the semi-colonized territory of Manchuria, mainly through the discussion of cinematic representations of Japanese colonialism within the region. This chapter shows that Ri’s cheerful cinematic image portrayed a different dimension of colonial conversation and created a multi-layer conversation between empire and the colonies, and temporarily pacified the tension and anxiety of the war-time period. The concluding chapter explores the question: What is the cultural legacy of the Japanese empire? By examining two Taiwanese colonial writers, Zhang Wenhuan and Long Yingzhong, and their literary works as well as their respective journeys to Tokyo for the first Greater East Asia Writers’ Conference, I claim that their actions amplified colonized voices that attempted to create a counter-discourse from the empire’s edges. To conclude, this dissertation demonstrates that one cannot fully understand colonial reality without acknowledging a multi-dimensional discourse between colonized, colonizer, and people in between. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Ayako Kano Keywords Colonial Taiwan, Japanese colonial literature, Manchuria, Natsume Soseki and Yosano Akiko, Ri Koran, Sato Haruo and Nishikawa Mitsuru Subject Categories Asian History | Asian Studies | Film and Media Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1824 TRAVELING ABROAD, WRITING NATIONALISM, AND PERFORMING IN DISGUISE: PEOPLE ON THE JAPANESE COLONIAL BOUNDARIES, 1909-1943 Huang-Wen Lai A DISSERTATION in East Asian Languages and Civilizations Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation: __________________________ Ayako Kano, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations Graduate Group Chairperson: __________________________ Paul R. Goldin, Professor of East Asian Languages & Civilizations Dissertation Committee: Frederick R. Dickinson, Professor of History Xiaojue Wang, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures TRAVELING ABROAD, WRITING NATIONALISM, AND PERFORMING IN DISGUISE: PEOPLE ON THE JAPANESE COLONIAL BOUNDARIES, 1909-1943 COPYRIGHT 2016 Huang-Wen Lai This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ iii To my wife, Chialin Lee, and my son, Ryan Lai iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I first came to the University of Pennsylvania, I believed this is the best place for me to pursue my Ph.D. degree. Years later, I realized the University was not only the place where I achieved my Ph.D., but also the origin of where I began my journey in search of knowledge and truth. All of this comes from my mentor and advisor, Professor Ayako Kano. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to her for the relentless support of my Ph.D. study, for her patience, intelligence, solicitude, and immense knowledge. She not only guided me to the ways of teaching and researching, but also showed me what it is like to be a great scholar and teacher. She is the best mentor and a paragon of humanity. I would never have completed this dissertation and my Ph.D. study without her continuous support. At the University of Pennsylvania, I also had the fortune to have Professor Frederick R. Dickinson and Professor Xiaojue Wang as my dissertation advisors. Professor Frederick R. Dickinson opened the door for a literary person, like me, to the field of modern Japanese History. His charming personality and intellectual guidance inspired me to become fascinated in history and helped me to think and see things in different ways. Professor Xiaojue Wang is one of the most knowledgeable scholars, who introduced me to the study of modern Chinese literature. It was in her class, I began working on Chinese literature and cinema. I am especially indebted to them. v My sincere thanks also goes to Professor Linda H. Chance, a model of generosity and responsiveness, who suggested thoughtful revisions for the dissertation and was always willing to help. I am deeply indebted to Professor David Spafford and Professor Julie Nelson Davis for their insightful suggestions, intellectual generosity, and enthusiastic inspiration throughout my study at Penn. I am also thankful to Dr. Paul Goldin, Dr. Nancy S. Steinhardt, Dr. Siyen Fei, Dr. Frank L. Chance, Dr. Hsiao-wen Cheng, and Dr. Jolyon Thomas for their extraordinary help and support. I would like to thank Dr. Molly Des Jardin, and Dr. Brian Vivier at the Van Pelt Library, who constantly offered their assistance and help for my research, and Linda Greene, Diane Moderski, and Peggy Guinan for their help over the years. I am also thankful to my M.A. thesis advisor, Professor Doris G. Bargen, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Professor Robert Tierney at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, for their warm encouragement and academic inspiration. I am happy to acknowledge my colleagues and friends at Penn, without whom my graduate studies and dissertation writing would not have been so meaningful: Zhenzhen Lu, Jooyeon Hahm, Alex Martin, Harry Schley, Thaya Saxby, Kirsten Seuffert, Daria Melnikova, Frank Clements, Mark Bookman, Robert Heywood, and Gregory Loh. I also gratefully acknowledge the following sources of financial support. The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania provided funding for my graduate study. For my summer research abroad, I was fortunate to receive the Cecilia Seigle Prize from the Japanese vi Studies program at Penn. Without this generous financial support, I would not have completed my study and this dissertation. I am grateful to my parents, Mai Xiu and Lai Rendi, and siblings, Lingzhen and Shuling, for their unselfish and unconditional support during these years. Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my wife, Chialin Lee, who stood by me throughout this long journey, and to my son, Ryan Lai, whose sweetness and cuteness helped to cheer me up. They are my reasons for living. vii ABSTRACT TRAVELING ABROAD, WRITING NATIONALISM, AND PERFORMING IN DISGUISE: PEOPLE ON THE JAPANESE COLONIAL BOUNDARIES, 1909-1943 Huang-Wen Lai Ayako Kano This dissertation investigates the relationships and discourse among “in-between” people under Japanese colonial rule. Featuring three case studies including literary travalers in Manchuria, colonial writers in Taiwan, and transnational performers in East Asia that each provide multiple evidentiary examples, this study is centered on three dimensions of colonial discourse that deliberately challenged normative identity, nationality, and coloniality: writing as empowerment of local authors, traveling as a project of identity and state building, and cultural performance as imperial propaganda. By examining specific instances in which colonial writers and performers such as Natsume Sōseki, Yosano Akiko, Satō Haruo, Nishikawa Mitsuru, and Ri