Colonial Taiwan Research Articles

Embedding Technologies into the Farming Economy: Extension Work of Japanese Sugar Companies in Colonial Taiwan

This article examines the extension of cultivation technologies by Japanese sugar companies in colonial Taiwan during the 1910s. As it became necessary for them to price their sugar more competitively in a Japanese market that by the end of the 1900s had become oversupplied, and with the devastation wrought to sugarcane cultivation by severe storms, from the early 1910s sugar companies accelerated their efforts to extend technologies to sugarcane farmers. However, such attempts faced difficulties at first because of the economic conditions at the time and also because of conflict with the production system managed by each farming household, which was characterized by multiple farming, crop rotation, and a circular economy. Realizing the deficiencies in extending the technology, Ensuikō Sugar began to reform its work from the mid-1910s so as to win the hearts of the farmers by reorganizing the hierarchy involved in the extension efforts The company also redesigned the components of its extension work by taking account of the economy of Taiwanese farmers. This article observes the beginning of the incorporation of the farming economy into a system of agricultural technology, in which the power involved in technologies gradually permeated the daily lives of farmers.

Beaver Fur and Deer Skin: Teaching Colonial American Literature in Taiwan's Context

English majors in Taiwan mostly are not familiar with American literature, let along American literature in the colonial times. However, should one compare the colonial history of Taiwan in the Age of Exploration with that of America in the similar era by the Dutch, students are more willing to participate in class discussion, their learning attitude has changed from passive to more active, and the result is therefore more rewarding too. The main reason of such a result lies in that, in my opinion, both colonial histories of Taiwan and US are alike, that is, both were discovered by Europeans in the Age of Exploration, and there are similarities between the colonization processes in Tainan, Taiwan, and several Dutch colonies along the east coast of America. The two colonial powers used trade as a means, exchanging mink and deerskin with native Aborigines respectively and eventually led to the abolition of the two indigenous peoples. This study aims at exploring similarities and differences between Taiwan and US colonial histories through examining their colonization processes in detail. I hope that from such a comparison, putting colonial American literature in the context of colonial Taiwan, American literary history may become more interesting to Taiwan Students.

三澤真美恵著, 『「帝国」と「祖国」のはざま-植民地期台湾映画人の交渉と越境-』, 岩波書店, 二〇一〇・八刊, A5, 三八三頁, 八二〇〇円

三澤真美恵著, 『「帝国」と「祖国」のはざま-植民地期台湾映画人の交渉と越境-』, 岩波書店, 二〇一〇・八刊, A5, 三八三頁, 八二〇〇円

Moving with modernisation and civilisation: Taiwanese nativist education in the early 1930s

This study examines localisation endeavours in contemporary Taiwan to explore the history of the Taiwanese localisation movement as a way of reimagining meanings of Taiwaneseness constructed under different historical circumstances. It focuses on the xiāngtǔ (nativist) literature movement in colonial Taiwan in the early 1930s that was initiated by Taiwanese intellectuals to create real Taiwanese literature on Taiwan and for the Taiwanese masses. Besides being a social education initiative to improve Taiwanese mass literacy, the xiāngtǔ literature movement was a localisation effort to reform Taiwanese language and preserve Taiwanese culture under Japanese occupation. The reform discourse made a turn towards specifically Taiwanese linguistic and cultural traditions, instead of pursuing modern Japanese and Chinese language and culture, which were the then available cultural impulses in colonial Taiwan. Local Taiwanese language and folk culture were essential curricular materials in the social education agenda that created particular meanings of Taiwaneseness for colonial Taiwan.

Viewpoints of Three Parties about the Picture-story Show Activities in Colonial Taiwan:Range of Colonial Picture-story Studies

Viewpoints of Three Parties about the Picture-story Show Activities in Colonial Taiwan:Range of Colonial Picture-story Studies

Colonial Taiwan's Financial Revolution

Under imperial Japanese rule, Taiwan experienced a relatively high rate of economic growth, and this growth is often attributed to well‐planned development policies. This paper argues that Taiwan's success was primarily due to the glut of money that flowed into the Japanese Empire during World War One. Taiwanese had suffered from limited access to credit, but, during the war, the Japanese‐controlled Bank of Taiwan had to find an outlet for the huge inflow of funds and greatly expanded lending to native Taiwanese. This unscripted experiment was a success, and continued access to formal capital markets allowed Taiwanese agriculture to takeoff.

日本植民地下の台湾における青年団 : 1940-43年の制度面を中心に

日本植民地下の台湾における青年団 : 1940-43年の制度面を中心に

植民地時代の台湾における青年会の成立過程(1910-1926) : 北部台湾A街の事例を中心に

植民地時代の台湾における青年会の成立過程(1910-1926) : 北部台湾A街の事例を中心に

A War at Heart： Colonial Taiwan's War Memory and “Motherland” Imagination

A War at Heart： Colonial Taiwan's War Memory and “Motherland” Imagination

Between “Rural Youth” and Empire: Social and Emotional Dynamics of Youth Mobilization in the Countryside of Colonial Taiwan under Japan’s Total War

Between “Rural Youth” and Empire: Social and Emotional Dynamics of Youth Mobilization in the Countryside of Colonial Taiwan under Japan’s Total War

Tenure Security and Long‐term Investment on Tenanted Land: Evidence from Colonial Taiwan

AbstractWe use farm diary data from Taiwan in the 1920s and 1930s to estimate the impacts of a state‐wide tenancy reform on tenants’ investment in the farmland and production outcome. The reform, commencing in 1922, enhanced the tenure security for the tenants by promoting written contracts that extended tenure length from 1 year to 5–6 years, and by establishing government‐sponsored organizations for dispute settlements. Our estimations rely on a difference‐in‐difference framework, where self‐cultivated farms are used as the control group. We find that the reform encouraged tenants to make investments in the irrigation and drainage system of the farms, which is expected to have long‐lasting benefits for production. The improved irrigation/drainage system led to significant efficiency gains for the farms. In contrast, the reform did not affect tenants’ usage of fertilizer much, which benefits production for only a crop season or a year.

Rethinking Taiwanese nationality and subjectivity: implications from language issues in colonial Taiwan in the 1920s

This historical study reflects on history curriculum debates over the last 20 years in Taiwan. To open up possibilities for contemporary Taiwanese to rethink themselves in terms of national culture and subjectivity, this paper explores the construction of Taiwanese subjectivity in the past. It focuses on the history of Taiwan under Japanese occupation as a key issue in history curriculum debates. Particularly, it examines language issues in the 1920s, an important theme in the histories of the formation of Taiwanese consciousness, ideology, and cultural nationalism during the Japanese colonial period. Rather than addressing issues of identity (national or cultural), identifying who Taiwanese really were, or looking for Chinese or Taiwanese consciousness, this study explores how meanings of “Taiwanese” in the 1920s under Japanese occupation were constructed in the discourse of language reform for civilisation. The analysis of the New Culture Movement discourse suggests that the classical Chinese language of Hànwén as a valuable cultural resource and flexible linguistic instrument played an essential role in constituting Taiwanese subjectivities that shaped Taiwanese practices of the self for distinctive civilisation.

Radio and Urban Rhythms in 1930s Colonial Taiwan

This article examines the history of radio and, how the consumption of radio might have transformed urban rhythms in colonial Taiwan. Being assisted by well-developed cultural industries, including magazines, newspapers, films and popular music, the influences of modernity had penetrated everyday life in Japan by the mid-1920s. The enthusiasm towards modernity reached the Japanese colonies in the 1930s. Until the outbreak of the Second Sino–Japanese War in 1937, Taiwanese society underwent a decade-long proliferation period of consumption, influenced by the convergence of urbanism, colonialism and modernism. The ‘modern’ experiences in 1930s Taiwan were largely influenced by media technologies. By conducting an examination through the story ‘Inviolable Destiny’ and other historical materials, this article shows how the consumption of radio signified multiple distinctions among ethnicities, classes, genders, generations and spaces in colonial Taiwan. The combination of radio and print media constituted an intertwined network that shaped the tempos of urban life. A constructed standard national time converged with rational institutions and generated a massive scale of coordination between Taiwan and the rest of the world. Radio did not only broadcast the content, which transferred public affairs into the private space, but also formulated a hidden rhythm of structured punctuality in daily life.

Human Trafficking and Intra-Imperial Knowledge: Adopted Daughters, Households, and Law in Imperial Japan and Colonial Taiwan, 1919–1935

In the early 1920s, the League of Nations embarked on regulating human trafficking as a social problem and questioned colonial empires about how to regulate it within and outside of their territories. As this question affected the Japanese empire and colonial Taiwan (1895–1945), the metropolitan government utilized the international discourse about human trafficking to construct regulations for the border-crossing prostitution of under-age women. This translation of the international discourse about human trafficking enabled Japan to preserve adult prostitution and freed colonial Taiwan from the related effects of Japan’s international agreement. These maneuvers also encouraged officials and the press based in Japan and Taiwan to associate prostitution with daughter adoption and further child abuse and parental authority, redefining the ideal of free will and movement. This article examines how Japanese criticisms of human trafficking evolved and intertwined in the Japanese colonial courts that adjudicated the adoption of Taiwanese daughters into households.

Japanese Colonialism in Comparative Perspective

This article examines the economic consequences of Japanese colonialism in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria between 1910 and 1945 and compares Japanese policies with those implemented by other colonial powers in Southeast Asia. In particular it addresses the writings of an influential group of American scholars who have published widely on Japanese colonial policies over the last fifty years. Their work has been used to support the argument that Japanese colonial policy was more developmental than that of other colonial powers and laid the foundations for the stellar economic performance of Taiwan and the Republic of Korea in the decades after 1950. To challenge this argument, this article compares a number of economic and social indicators in Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria with those from other Asian colonies, as well as Thailand and showing that while the Japanese colonies, especially Taiwan, score well on some indicators, they do less well on others. The idea of Japanese exceptionalism cannot be accepted uncritically.

Sugarcane Transport of the Modern Sugar Industry in Colonial Taiwan

Sugarcane Transport of the Modern Sugar Industry in Colonial Taiwan

Book Review: Misato Shimizu, "Development" of Imperial Japan and Colonial Taiwan: Chia-nan Irrigation Canal and Sun-moon-lake Hydroelectric Power Plant (in Japanese)

Book Review: Misato Shimizu, <i>&quot;Development&quot; of Imperial Japan and Colonial Taiwan: Chia-nan Irrigation Canal and Sun-moon-lake Hydroelectric Power Plant</i> (in Japanese)

Japanese Taiwan: Colonial Rule and Its Contested Legacy, edited by Andrew D. Morris. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. xii+258 pp. £65.00 (cloth), £64.99 (eBook).

<i>Japanese Taiwan: Colonial Rule and Its Contested Legacy</i>, edited by Andrew D. Morris. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. xii+258 pp. £65.00 (cloth), £64.99 (eBook).

Wartime interpreting during the Sino-Dutch War (1661–1662)

While wartime interpreting has become a research focus in very recent years, little research has explored on-the-battleground interpreting for warring sides in pre-modern times. By examining the Dutch East India Company (VOC) archival resources and other relevant historical documents, this study discusses interpreting practices during the Sino-Dutch War (1661–1662) in seventeenth-century colonial Taiwan, with a focus on interpreters’ backgrounds, functions and status, issues of loyalty and trust, and interpreters and translation as a tool of manipulation and power struggles. The overview of the interpreters and the interpreting practices in pre-modern wartime viewed against our present experience shows both differences and similarities in wartime interpreting between the past and the present; it also indicates that although the importance of interpreters has been increasingly recognized, they have remained a symbol of both relief and distrust since ancient times.

Wartime interpreting during the Sino-Dutch War (1661–1662)

While wartime interpreting has become a research focus in very recent years, little research has explored on-the-battleground interpreting for warring sides in pre-modern times. By examining the Dutch East India Company (VOC) archival resources and other relevant historical documents, this study discusses interpreting practices during the Sino-Dutch War (1661–1662) in seventeenth-century colonial Taiwan, with a focus on interpreters’ backgrounds, functions and status, issues of loyalty and trust, and interpreters and translation as a tool of manipulation and power struggles. The overview of the interpreters and the interpreting practices in pre-modern wartime viewed against our present experience shows both differences and similarities in wartime interpreting between the past and the present; it also indicates that although the importance of interpreters has been increasingly recognized, they have remained a symbol of both relief and distrust since ancient times.