Post-war Taiwan: knowing the other from the cultural politics of identity and architecture

© 2011 Dr. Chia-Hui LinThis research reveals the important role of space in history as the locus of identity construction in post-war Taiwan. Critical is the identification of a spatiotemporal realisation of cultural politics during the authoritarian Martial Law era (1949-1987) and the pragmatic formation of identity in the democratic present. Nationalism in Martial Law Taiwan is discussed as the preliminary concept of identity construction as are the multifarious representations of acculturation in which the history and spaces of post-war Taiwan have been inscribed, codified, reinterpreted and written. These have been frequently emphasised as a post-Martial Law identity. The intention here is to examine the dominant myth constructed under autocratic psychological suppression and to reveal the genuine implications of identity construction in spatial historiography and practices beyond the collective ideology and official discourse. This thesis consists of three core parts along with an introduction and a conclusion. The first part is a contextual sketch of the post-WWII built environment in Taiwan aided by a comparative analysis of Hong Kong and Singapore’s colonial past and the social ambivalence inscribed in their spatial constructions of identity. A strategic survey of Martial Law Taiwan’s ascendant discourse in architecture, which reflected in specific social political circumstances of the time, is followed as the comparison and analytical schema. The second part is a spatial observation of the revolutionary change in social atmosphere following the lifting of Martial Law in 1987 by looking at spatial re-representation in native literature and cinematic works. Through analysing literature and cinematic works, a dramatic transition from authoritarian spatial imagery to agency oriented dominance is identified. The final part deals specifically with post-Martial Law Taiwan’s remarkable social movement, Community Development, along with its spatial practices. Here, the theoretical discourse and representative case studies are analysed and discussed. The hypothesis, which corresponds to the problematic issues discovered in the research, is that the present spatial composition in Taiwan cannot be described as resting on either a simplified nationalist base or chaotic societal anxiety. Rather, there is a form of fuzziness between binary poles, namely autocracy and democracy, nation state and day-to-day life, top-down and bottom-up orientations, and orthodoxy and hybridisation. This fuzziness shapes present day identity construction in post-Martial Law Taiwan and in particular its architectural practices. Most importantly, it reflects the current mainstream value of what can be formed as “heteroglossia”. Framed in this way, this thesis therefore poses the fundamental question: “What is the identified representation of architecture beyond the context of post-war Taiwan’s culture and politics?