Museum as Empowerment?A Study of Ink-stone Industry in Ershui, Taiwan

[[abstract]]受到政權更迭的影響，臺灣的博物館初期多用以政令宣傳與殖民意象的形塑。民國八○年代之後，政府政策逐漸「由中央走向地方」，不僅因本土文化意識高漲而帶動地方文史調查的風氣，許多地方博物館也應運而生。 彰化縣二水鄉乃臺灣中部的濁水溪所孕育出的農村社會。明清之際移居濁水溪一帶的漢人，受到當時的科舉制度影響，就地取材製成石硯做為文房用品，而後經日治、戰後國民政府遷台至今，螺溪石硯從地方物產轉變為特色工藝，成為二水鄉具代表性的文化產業。民國七○年代末期之後，當地部分製硯師傅自發性地將店面遷移，形成硯雕藝術大道，並組成彰化縣螺溪石硯雕刻協會，公立的「螺溪石藝館」則搭上地方博物館的政策列車，落成於八○年代的尾聲。二水，逐漸被形塑為「硯台的故鄉」。 當「蓋一座地方博物館」在社區總體營造政策中成為保存與管理地方文化的趨勢，筆者希望能藉本研究回顧地方政府機關、文史工作者及相關從業人員如何透過各種方式奠定製硯作為地方特色文化產業的基礎、形塑地方感與在地居民的認同，並探討博物館在政策賦權過程中所扮演的角色，及其運作模式如何受到地方政治經濟與人際關係鏈的影響。[[abstract]]Museums of earlier days in Taiwan were established mostly for exhibiting government policy and the colonial image. Things have changed. Since 1990s, a new wave of “from ground up” has seen a boom of local museums with special local character. Ershui is a farming village near Jhuoshuei River (Ro-hsie) in Changhua County, in central Taiwan. In older time, villagers found stones in river perfectly suited for making ink-stones (yan tai) an indispensible part of the traditional Chinese calligraphy. About twenty years ago, villagers made up “The Association of Sculptured Ink-stone in Changhua County”, rode the train of local museum and then built a “The Street of Sculptured Ink-stone Art” and “Ro-hsie Lapidary Museum”, turning the once livelihood means to an artifact of local flavor, a representative of Ershui. With the museum, the government is especially aiming for a new locality, and also using it as a public sphere to create the sense of place and identity for villagers. “Building a local museum” became a famous policy of Comprehensive Community Development, and in this article, I focus on the history and the process of building local culture industry by the museum. I also discuss how the building was affected by local politics, provincial economy and interpersonal relationship. The questions I want particularly examine are: how the industry of ink-stone in Ershui has turned itself into the cultural activity and did the building a local museum empower villagers and also developed their the sense of place and Ershui identity?[[note]]碩