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Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Rule, 1895-1945 by Liao Ping-Hui and David Der-Wei Wang, eds.
For most of its history, Taiwan has been occupied and colonized by one external power or another. Whether it was the Chinese, the Dutch, Portuguese or Japanese, the Taiwanese people have had to do the bidding of someone else. Dominated by others for so long, what does it mean to be a Taiwanese? Is it possible to separate a sense of belonging to a particular state that is not thoroughly compromised by the impact of colonization? These are questions with which scholars have been wrestling for the last few decades without, in truth, coming up with many definitive answers. The Japanese colonization period was different from the other episodes for several reasons, not least of which is the time period at which it took place. At the turn of the twentieth century, improvements in technology meant that Taiwan was no longer very far away from Japan in terms of difficulty. Previous colonization periods were generally characterized by the remoteness of the governed from the seat of power.
Consequently, local governors had more autonomy over the way they governed and the Taiwanese and their world of production was not closely linked into the international economic system. For Japan, this was the first overseas colony to be established and they launched into controlling it with what seems to be a sense of determined scientific rationality. All aspects of Taiwanese life and work were measured and itemized and classified. From the perspective of the Japanese, this was simply a precursor to rational management of an asset; for Taiwanese, it was to strip from their lives and culture ambivalent and ambiguous elements which might be of considerable cultural significance. Instead of the complex interplay of class, ethnic and gender relations, society came to be defined essentially as a dichotomy, in which there were the rulers and the ruled. For the ruled, their products, whether economic, cultural or social, were as a consequence to be considered inferior to those produced by the rulers. Attempting to rediscover those indigenous products and place them in a suitable context is one of the purposes of this book, which brings together sixteen papers, together with an introduction, which were first presented at a conference at Columbia University in 2001. The book brings together offerings by some of the world's greatest experts in the subject.
The sub-title for this collection of papers is "History, Culture, Memory" and it is fair to say that the second of these takes precedence. These papers are largely located in the post-colonial mode of thought and that tends to use historical fact as a starting point for analysis rather than an end point. Consequently, the majority of papers are concerned to a large extent with the theoretical underpinnings of post-colonialism and this will not suit every reader. Those looking for a narrative treatment of the period concerned would be better advised to look elsewhere.
The book is divided into four sections of four papers each. The first is entitled "Rethinking Colonialism and Modernity: Historical and Theoretical Case Studies," the second is "Colonial Policy and Cultural Change," the third "Visual Culture and Literary Expressions" and the fourth "From Colonial to Postcolonial: Redeeming or Recruiting the Other?" The book is overall edited to a high standard and these sections appear to be quite natural rather than forced or organised on an ad hoc basis, as so many collections of academic papers seem to end up becoming. The participants include Taiwanese, Japanese and westerners and this has led to a good spread of opinions and approaches. There is a great deal of interesting material in this compendium and scholars of Taiwanese history will find much food for thought, as will also those interested in the study of post-colonialism. This area has been created as a response to western colonization of African and Asian lands which were remote and appeared exotic to the colonial masters. Asian colonization of Asian lands was just as real a phenomenon but has received rather less attention.
John Walsh
31/05/2007
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John Walsh is Assistant Professor at Shinawatra International University, Bangkok. |
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