Taiwan Colonial Architecture Heritage On National Identity

The Influence of Taiwan Colonial Architecture Heritage On National Identity
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Abstract
Modern, multifaceted national identity constitutes economic improvement, environmental concern, social welfare, and civil awareness. There has been a debate on what constitutes historical heritage and the aspects of post-colonial heritage preserved. Taiwan is among countries that were initially colonized by Japan and yet experienced difficulties in eradicating or upholding the political and cultural aspects of its colonial masters. Taiwan's people experienced a conflict of interest while using either colonial and post-colonial modernism to establish their national identity. Architectural styles in both eras illustrate the people's perspectives about their national identity during and after the colonial period. The essay explores architectural styles in different periods in Taiwan's history and their influence on national identity formation and sustenance.
The Influence of Taiwan Colonial Architecture Heritage On National Identity
The island of Taiwan is among the islands lying along the Asian continent in the Pacific Ocean. Austronesian indigenous people originally inhabited the island, but it became a Chinese immigrant frontier in the 17th century. Historically, Taiwan has had different regimes, including the Dutch (1624-61), the Koxinga (1662-83), the Qing (1684-1894), the Japanese empire (1895-1945), and the Chinese Nationalist regime. The Japanese colonial regimen and the Chinese Nationalist regime are the most significant regime evolution cycles witnessed in Taiwan in the 20th century (Chu & Lin, 2001). Consecutively, each of the two regimes dominated its political history for almost half a century by using an authoritarian rule to overcome the challenge of subordinating the native society. They experienced a strong societal resistance. They tried to suppress the indigenous cultural identity and impose a cultural unity between the ruler and the ruled through state-sponsored cultural programs. Although the two regimes had initially assumed high autonomy and insulation from the native society, the state elite's interests eventually entangled with those of the natives (Chang, 2014). The native elite turned out to be the indispensable intermediary for effective social control. Both the Japanese colonial rulers and the Nationalist regime effectively organized popular compliance and allegiance, controlling, and mobilizing society. A similar political prowess in regulating political participation, elite recruitment, and access to the policy-making process was exhibited. Taiwanese colonial heritage affected the development, state, and direction of the county's national identities.
Japan began its modernization process in the mid-19th century. The first Sino-Japanese war occurred in April 1895 where the Qing Dynasty was defeated and signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The treaty ceded Taiwan to the Japanese regime, which ruled the island from 1895 to 1945, until the 2nd World War. During the fifty-years of Japanese ruling, Taiwan witnessed immense modernization and industrialization (Wang, 2012). Japan surrendered as the colonial administrators of Taiwan after World War II paved the way for the Chinese government, represented by Chen Yi. The Chinese Nationalist Government (KMT) 's corruptive takeover practices, and the island's retrocession to the Republic of China (ROC) led to a tragic uprising and suppression in February 1947. Administrative wrangles in Mainland China compelled the KMT regime to immigrate to Taiwan in 1949, marking the beginning of an authoritarian ruling (Chang, 2014). The dual political structure under Japanese colonialism persisted with the new Chinese ruling regime taking over all major state institutions and inheriting former colonial infrastructure on the island. The two regimes produced substantially different outcomes in terms of the development of political society and the construction of collective national identity, irrespective of their differences in administrative ideologies
Eventually, Taiwan transformed into an anti-communist stronghold during the Cold war. The island developed to become one of the newly industrialized countries in East Asia in the 1980s following the US aid throughout the late 1950s and 60s. China's withdrawal from the United Nations and diplomatic setbacks liberalized KMT and formed the political opposition during 1970 (Go & Lai, 2019). The first opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was formed in 1986 with support from the grassroots and urban middle-class Taiwanese in both local and national elections. Due to changing local and international affairs, Chiang Ching-Kuo (the third ROC president) lifted the martial law and opened cross-strait visits in 1987. The democratization efforts in Taiwan continued under Lee Teng-hui's leadership, the first Taiwanese chairman of the KMT Party and ROC president (Chu & Lin, 2001). In 2000, the Taiwanese reached the climax of its new political evolution when Chen Shui-bian, an oppositional DPP candidate, won the presidential election. Since May 2016, Tsai Ing-wen is the first female President in the history of Taiwan.
Contribution of Different Governors in Conserving or Destroying Colonial Heritages
Japanese colonial rulers enacted laws for the protection of the heritage of different nature in Taiwan. However, things changed after World War II when Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Government began ruling the island in 1949. The new administration had a different way of dealing with buildings and infrastructures left by the Japanese rulers (Hsia, 2002). Since World War II, the KMT government attempted to erase all Japanese rule traces from public space. According to the KMT administration, all constructions, monuments, and artifacts associated with the Japanese colonial rulers were inappropriate or "poisonous" to Taiwan's people. As a result, KMT embarked on "de-Japanizing" the island through the destruction and alteration of Japanese structures. For example, the NationalistGovernment systematically destroyed Japanese shrines, including the Jinja temples, and replaced them with National Martyrs' Shrines (Wang, 2012). Although the Japanese had set a series of laws to protect historical monuments and natural resources, Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist administration was selective in protecting historical monuments. Things changed after democratization in the 1990s, which led to the re-evaluation of Taiwan's Japanese past and history. Many Japanese structures have been reconstructed and conserved since then.
Initially, the Ancient Artifact Preservation Act (1931) protected all historic monuments before the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act was enacted in May 1982. The "Historical Monuments of Taiwan and Fujian Provinces" is the first list of monuments categorized by their historical or cultural significance or their aesthetic value (Wang, 2015). While the Japanese colonial administration aimed at protecting all historical monuments, the NationalistGovernment focused on protecting only monuments built by Chinese migrants, including the Koxinga Shrine, Confucius Temple, Longshan Temple, Official God of War Temple, and the Grand Matsu Temple, among others. They are highly protected as they represent Chinese immigration history and their cultural significance attributes to Mainland China. Also, the structures have a great aesthetic value on space and construction.
National Identity and Its Significance to Modern Society
Considering its selective conservation of cultural heritage, it is evident that the Nationalist Government had a hidden political agenda. The Japanese had colonized the Taiwanese society for about 50 years. During the Japanese tenure, the island experienced tremendous modernization and urbanization developments (Hsia, 2002). As a result, the Nationalist Government encountered numerous challenges and resistance while transitioning to Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek had to develop some strategic and long-term measures to overcome the difficult situations that hindered the establishment of sovereignty in the country. The Nationalist Government adopted the policy of "De-Japanizing" which depicted the Japanese colonial sites as the poisonous leftovers of Japanese imperialism. It was a mechanism aimed at mobilizing the Taiwanese society against the Japanese imperial ruling in favor of the new Nationalist regime. Besides, from 1949 to 1987, martial law was imposed where the Chinese language and culture were forced on the people (Chang, 2015). Also, the law excluded all Japanese monuments from the cultural heritage category under the government's protection. For example, the Shinto shrines were converted into martyrs' memorials while other colonial constructions were destroyed or deserted. The Taiwanese architecture was rarely considered a cultural heritage.
The main aim of implementing martial law was to enforce the Chinese national identity to Taiwan's people. It was a Nationalist Government mechanism to erode both the Japanese and the Taiwanese cultural and political values in favor of Mainland China (Chang, 2015). Chiang attempted to convince the Taiwanese people, both politically and culturally, to create a perceived relationship between Taiwan and Mainland China. He tried to politically convince the Nationalist delegates from Mainland China to stay in Taiwan with the hope of conquering the island and returning home. It was a method of reverting the traditional and cultural ways of the Taiwanese people considering that they had been under the Japanese administration for fifty years. The Nationalist Government had to find a way of reinstalling Chinese culture in Taiwan by conserving only architecture that gives the people comfort to their nostalgia, including those created by their migrant ancestors (Chang & Chiang, 2012). Eventually, the Taiwanese people had to comply with the Nationalist Government's discourse, especially after leaving the United Nations. Arguments arose that the government fabricated cultural heritage to create a perceived Chinese national identity among Taiwan's aboriginal people. A significant proportion of the aboriginal cultural heritage and the Japanese monuments were deliberately ignored in favor of the Chinese culture to reaffirm the relation between Taiwan and Mainland China.
SECTION 1: Taiwanese Hybrid Identity
The postwar destruction and alteration of the Japanese monuments meant to spread the Nationalist Government's propaganda. It was a strategy to brainwash and alienate the Taiwanese people and convince them that they were of Chinese origin (Amae, 2011). TheGovernment publicly exercised cultural hegemony to legitimize their rule just like their Japanese predecessors. In the mid-1990s, the reconstruction of several Japanese past monuments was possible through restoration and conservation following the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (1982). However, most of the reconstructed structures are hardly preserved or restored in their original forms. A large proportion of them has transformed into new cultural production. They represent themes of multiculturalism and hybridization of different cultures, including Japanese, Chinese, and in some cases, Aboriginal. The restored and renovated Japanese monuments depict a multicultural and hybrid Taiwan.
Multiculturalism is among the main aspects observed in the preservation of the Japanese structure in Taiwan. For example, in the Koxinga Shrine in Tainan, the traces of the Japanese past and its aesthetics are evident. The Japanese built the shrine in Taiwan in honor of Koxinga, whose family ruled the island from 1662 to 1683 (Amae, 2011). Today, the shrine portrays historical artifacts, including those created during the Japanese ruling period. The shrine was also significant to the KMT leaders in their ideological war with the communists, as demonstrated by the slogan, "Overthrow the Qing, and Recover the Ming." The slogan depicts the determination of a Ming loyalist in defying the Qing forces in Mainland China. Many of the old artifacts found in the Koxinga Shrine are modified or blended with new cultural elements. The Gangshan Shinto Shrine was destroyed in 1937 by Japanese authorities, but some of its monumental artifacts, including the "mikoshi", was preserved differently in a Daoist Temple in Gangshan. The current state of the Gangshan "mikoshi" illustrates the hybridization of the Japanese and Taiwanese cultural heritage.
It is important to note that Japanese and anti-Japanese heroes and monuments are present on the Taiwan island. It, thus, means that both Japanese and anti-Japanese heritage are part of the Taiwanese heritage. From a Taiwanese perspective, there is no conflict between the two sides, making Taiwan a multicultural or a hybrid state (Amae, 2011). For example, the anti-Japanese cultural monuments are considered more of a Taiwanese affair since it is not necessarily common to all Chinese descendants. Even the anti-Japanese martyrs are termed as Taiwanese heroes rather than Chinese. The Taiwanese nationalists consume and experience the Japanese past and the reconstruction of its cultural heritage. Besides, it serves to deconstruct the Chinese-oriented history while developing a history that prioritizes a Taiwan experience. Most of the cultural heritage preserved by the KMT regime to signify Taiwanese national culture includes significant Japanese relics. The Taiwanese society's hybrid identity associated with its historical and cultural reconstruction is a post-colonial outcome rather than a decolonizing effort. The preserved monuments and cultural artifacts depict the Japanese past as part and parcel of both Taiwanese past and present.
SECTION 2: Taiwan's Architectural Heritage
Architectural design and style can be symbolic to a particular nation, culture, religion, or history. Also, architecture can be a representation of regimes, societies, families, and individuals. Protection and conservation of historic buildings, monuments, and artifacts are essential at the individual, family, cultural, social, and national levels. After the Cultural Property Act (1982) was enacted in Taiwan, hundreds of structures and buildings got listed as either historical or cultural monuments (Wang, 2015). New official and local initiatives gradually transformed the old anti-Japanese narrative. A former colonial bank built based on a Western architectural design was the first Japanese colonial site to be listed as a national historical monument. Reconstruction and renovation of Japanese colonial sites occurred mostly after the martial law was abolished. The Integrated Community Making Program was promulgated in 1994 by the KMT government to create a new community where ethnic (Chinese immigrant) and Taiwanese groups could coexist (Amae, 2011). A similar approach was adopted by the DPP government from 2000 and resulted in the transformation and restoration of several Japanese sites as historic monuments.
The creation of Taiwan's architectural...