Island of Encounters: Excursion of Taiwan History through Museum Exhibitions with Dr. Lung-chih Chang

This lecture will introduce the major trends and development of Taiwan history using the collections and exhibitions of National Museum of Taiwan History as examples.

The image contains a drawing of ships and an island with a castle and a small town, all not to scale.

Fort Zeelandia, the Dutch East India Company’s Taiwanese headquarters (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The lecture aims to provide an overview of Taiwan history and highlight multiple and diverse historical narratives surrounding modern and contemporary Taiwan. Based on museum exhibitions and recent scholarship, the lectures will introduce major themes and issues such as Taiwan’s modernization, democratization, the multi-ethnic society and national identity, post-colonial memories and transitional justice. No prior knowledge of Taiwan or proficiency in Chinese are required.

About the lecturer

Dr. Lung-chih Chang is director of National Museum of Taiwan History and Associate Research Fellow and former deputy Director of the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He obtained his PhD from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His area of expertise includes Taiwan's social and cultural history, ethnic relationship history, comparative colonialism, Taiwan history and public history.

The Taiwan Matters lecture series has been funded by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan (ROC) through the Taipei Mission in Stockholm, Sweden.

Lecture recording (audio file only!)

 

Transcription

 

01:08.720 --> 01:13.960
Welcome, everybody, to this very, very, very special event.

01:16.600 --> 01:21.560
Professor Chang Lung-chih came flying in from Taiwan yesterday.

01:22.920 --> 01:27.840
I don't envy him with jet lag and everything to speak here today,

01:27.840 --> 01:30.280
but we are extremely happy to have him here.

01:31.000 --> 01:36.800
He is director of National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan City in Taiwan

01:37.160 --> 01:41.880
and associate research fellow and former deputy director of the Institute of

01:41.880 --> 01:45.240
Taiwan History at Academia Sinica in Taipei.

01:46.560 --> 01:57.160
He has his PhD from Harvard and he is one of the foremost historians of Taiwan

01:57.160 --> 02:02.280
history. So we are extremely happy to have you here and I won't say more.

02:02.440 --> 02:05.760
Otherwise, I will spend your time, so please.

02:08.440 --> 02:09.720
So there's no microphone, right?

02:10.040 --> 02:10.760
No microphone.

02:10.760 --> 02:11.280
No need.

02:12.680 --> 02:14.000
It's in the air, the microphone.

02:14.000 --> 02:16.040
Just operate with this.

02:16.360 --> 02:16.720
Yeah.

02:22.520 --> 02:23.000
Oh, OK.

02:23.000 --> 02:30.400
Yeah. OK, good afternoon (dàjiā hǎo/tāi-ke hó). I am Lung-chih Chang from Taiwan.

02:30.760 --> 02:34.760
It's really my great pleasure and honor to be able to kick off the

02:34.760 --> 02:38.520
Taiwan Matters lecture series at Oslo University.

02:38.880 --> 02:44.320
And this is also my first visit to Norway, and after more than 20 hours of flight,

02:44.320 --> 02:49.320
I'm not sure I can keep my mind clear after maybe half of halfway through my lecture.

02:49.320 --> 02:53.880
But please bear with me if my English suddenly becomes very poor and very

02:53.880 --> 02:59.000
slow and my mind begins flowing in some unknowable direction.

02:59.240 --> 03:04.800
But anyway, here I am and I'm really glad to be able to come here and exchange

03:04.800 --> 03:12.400
with you when teacher A-De (Halvor) called me from some unknown place and invited me

03:12.760 --> 03:14.840
to come to this lecture.

03:14.840 --> 03:20.120
I hesitated for a moment, but then I think this is really maybe one of my

03:20.120 --> 03:22.520
lifetime experience to be able to travel to Norway.

03:23.160 --> 03:24.880
So here I am.

03:25.360 --> 03:30.040
And hopefully in the next 40 minutes or so, we could have a pleasant

03:30.360 --> 03:36.040
discussion of Taiwan history using a museum exhibition as an example to

03:36.040 --> 03:40.960
give a rough idea about how history has been, especially the history of Taiwan

03:40.960 --> 03:45.880
has been researched or represented.

03:46.240 --> 03:50.200
And maybe especially in tomorrow's lecture, we can talk about how Taiwan

03:50.200 --> 03:54.640
history has been debated and contested in contemporary Taiwan.

03:55.120 --> 03:55.520
Okay.

03:55.880 --> 04:02.280
So as you can see, the title of my today's lecture is Island of Encounters.

04:02.960 --> 04:08.640
And I will, this is my general outline, just to give you a rough idea.

04:08.640 --> 04:13.840
And I will just talk a little bit about how Taiwan history became a field of study

04:13.840 --> 04:19.280
in Taiwan after the post, after the lifting of Martial Law in 1987.

04:19.840 --> 04:25.280
And then I will just go directly to the museum of the National Museum of Taiwan

04:25.280 --> 04:34.000
History, and I will just briefly introduce how it came into being and then what

04:34.000 --> 04:36.320
has been, how the museum has been functioning.

04:36.320 --> 04:38.560
And then I will focus on two cases.

04:39.040 --> 04:42.480
One is the permanent exhibition of the museum when it first opened to the

04:42.480 --> 04:50.200
public in 2011, then I would talk a little bit more about how my staff, our

04:50.200 --> 04:57.080
staff's efforts to provide the new narrative based on the old exhibition

04:57.080 --> 05:03.720
and to reflect not only the changing political, social situation, but also

05:03.720 --> 05:12.760
the development of the historical study of Taiwan itself in 2021.

05:14.040 --> 05:20.200
And then I will, if time permits, I will be closing with a very rough remarks on

05:20.200 --> 05:26.200
what the museum and my colleagues and I are trying to do in the near future.

05:26.200 --> 05:29.320
And it's been, what we've been doing and what we want to accomplish.

05:29.320 --> 05:35.160
And that basically, so if anyone would like to maybe leave this room and go

05:35.160 --> 05:40.520
for to better place to go and a cup of coffee and you can feel free to do it.

05:41.720 --> 05:47.160
So this is a general picture of the National Museum of Taiwan History.

05:47.720 --> 05:50.680
And how many of you have been, have visited Taiwan before?

05:51.800 --> 05:53.000
Oh, very many.

05:53.000 --> 05:53.480
Okay.

05:53.480 --> 05:58.680
As you can see that when we talk about museums in Taiwan, our museum will not

05:58.680 --> 06:03.400
come to mind at first, usually the sequence will be National Palace Museum.

06:04.360 --> 06:10.120
And then if you have some knowledge about Taiwan's colonial past during the

06:10.120 --> 06:15.240
Japanese rule, there will be a museum, National Taiwan Museum, which is

06:15.240 --> 06:18.840
Taiwan's first museum set up in 1915

06:18.840 --> 06:23.720
by the Japanese colonial government, later transforming into a National Taiwan Museum.

06:23.720 --> 06:28.440
It is basically a natural history museum and located in the right now, we call it

06:28.440 --> 06:31.640
228 Peace Park near Taipei Station.

06:32.680 --> 06:38.040
And then there will be another museum called National History Museum located

06:38.040 --> 06:44.360
right across my high school called Jianguo

06:44.360 --> 06:49.480
High school in the so-called Botanic Garden.

06:49.480 --> 06:54.920
It is a museum set up in post-war Taiwan by the national government based on the

06:54.920 --> 06:58.920
artifacts transferred from Henan Museum.

06:58.920 --> 07:02.760
So this is actually a museum of Chinese civilization and arts.

07:03.480 --> 07:09.160
So our museum is the only museum that featured Taiwan history per se.

07:09.160 --> 07:16.920
And it was unthinkable before the lifting of martial law and is still growing after

07:16.920 --> 07:21.000
celebrating the 10th anniversary in 2021.

07:22.440 --> 07:30.920
In our, this is a brief introduction of the museum, the mission, and also some of the

07:30.920 --> 07:31.880
major

07:31.880 --> 07:38.280
major efforts, such as to promote Taiwan's cultural identity, to dialogue on historical

07:38.280 --> 07:46.280
issues, and to improve our international cooperation and also try to bring in the

07:47.480 --> 07:50.440
progressive idea of intellectual popularization, something like that.

07:50.440 --> 07:50.920
Okay.

07:52.920 --> 07:55.080
And this is what our museum looks like.

07:55.080 --> 08:03.720
It is actually a historical garden, and there are two major buildings.

08:03.720 --> 08:09.480
One is an administrative building with our depositories, and the other is exhibition

08:09.480 --> 08:14.120
education building, which is located here.

08:15.720 --> 08:19.880
And this is the museum's main building.

08:19.880 --> 08:31.720
Which is located here, and this is our, it is a symbol of our museum, and I will talk

08:31.720 --> 08:34.040
about it with you if time permits later.

08:35.160 --> 08:40.760
Our museum right now consists of more than 100 staff members, and they are not only from

08:41.320 --> 08:47.640
history background, they're also from various disciplines, like from art history to

08:47.640 --> 08:55.320
museology, and also there is some civil administrative channel directly.

08:55.320 --> 09:01.960
So there's basically many tracks that consists of our team.

09:02.520 --> 09:12.200
And so for those who are familiar with the four major functions of the museum, our museum

09:12.200 --> 09:17.400
also performed similar functions in featuring Taiwan history.

09:17.400 --> 09:24.760
So right now, after maybe 20 years in preparation and 10 years open to the public, we have collected

09:24.760 --> 09:35.640
more than 150,000 items of artifacts, varying from, with different categories.

09:36.280 --> 09:41.880
And most of our collections are donated by the owners.

09:42.440 --> 09:46.840
Many of them are actually from featuring the daily life of Taiwanese people.

09:46.840 --> 09:53.720
So we don't have any things like those treasures in National Palace, like if you happen to

09:53.720 --> 09:58.200
broke one of them, then you will be in great trouble.

09:58.200 --> 10:06.840
But our artifacts, it's more down to earth, and it's basically a social, trying to reflect

10:06.840 --> 10:13.240
the social life of Taiwanese people and also the folk culture, along with other various

10:13.240 --> 10:17.320
religious and cultural traditions.

10:17.320 --> 10:24.760
So this is, this is just to give you a rough idea about the variety of our collections

10:24.760 --> 10:31.960
from maps to drawings to artifacts.

10:31.960 --> 10:42.840
And we also have some, but not many, collections from the indigenous Taiwanese.

10:42.840 --> 10:55.160
And in last year, which is about September 2022, we have a new special item into our

10:55.160 --> 11:06.920
depository, which is the only Nobel Prize, Nobel Medal in Chemistry, donated by Mr. Yuen-che

11:06.920 --> 11:16.680
Lee, and hopefully it will not be the only one, but right now it is, it is the only Nobel

11:16.680 --> 11:24.120
Prize medal in Taiwan, which has become part of to our museum.

11:24.120 --> 11:31.720
Our research focus on various time periods and publish related historical material and

11:31.720 --> 11:35.400
documents along with other materials.

11:35.400 --> 11:43.560
So for those who have a basic idea of Taiwan, it is essentially a regional island and it's

11:43.560 --> 11:55.160
the rich archaeological findings, but it formally entered the realm of world history in the

11:55.160 --> 12:03.080
late 16th century and become the crossroad of different maritime powers in 17th centuries.

12:03.080 --> 12:09.400
In 18th centuries, there's a lot of Chinese migrants from South China, especially Fujian

12:09.400 --> 12:15.400
and Guangdong, they set up a various agricultural development and Taiwan become developed, gradually

12:15.400 --> 12:21.320
transformed from a regional island into a home for Han immigrant volunteers.

12:21.320 --> 12:29.480
In maybe with the opening of treaty ports in the 1860s, Taiwan became, especially Taiwan's

12:29.480 --> 12:42.360
commercial product like tea, sugar, and also camphor, became the worldwide merchandise.

12:42.360 --> 12:48.520
So Taiwan also became the focus of various international rivalry in East Asia.

12:48.520 --> 12:55.160
And starting from 1895, Taiwan became Japanese first overseas colony.

12:55.160 --> 13:01.640
During the 50 years of Japanese rule, Taiwan gradually transformed from a Han immigrant

13:01.640 --> 13:11.360
frontier to a modern industrial society under the Japanese colonial regime.

13:11.360 --> 13:22.280
In 1945, with the defeat of Japanese in the World War II, Taiwan was returned to the ROC,

13:22.280 --> 13:29.880
the KMT government, and starting the so-called post-war period for more than 70 years.

13:29.880 --> 13:38.360
And Taiwan is one of the longest martial law rules under the world's longest martial rule

13:38.360 --> 13:41.080
for more than 38 years.

13:41.080 --> 13:51.640
And it was not until 1987 when Taiwan gradually became a democratic society with strong civil

13:51.640 --> 13:56.680
organizations all the way until today.

13:56.680 --> 14:03.160
This sketch of Taiwan history is the focus of our research team.

14:03.160 --> 14:11.240
So we have been collecting and also researching, if not translating into Chinese, various multilingual

14:11.240 --> 14:16.040
sources on Taiwan from all the way from the 17th to the 19th century.

14:16.040 --> 14:25.560
And we also published a lot of Ming-Qing dynasty materials such as land deeds, archives from

14:25.560 --> 14:28.040
National Palace Museum, and such like that.

14:28.040 --> 14:36.600
And we also work on Japanese colonial archives and published various source collections or

14:37.880 --> 14:38.200
maps.

14:39.080 --> 14:44.200
Also, there are some visual collections like documentaries during the 1930s.

14:44.200 --> 14:50.600
Yeah, these are part of our research, the results of our research.

14:50.600 --> 14:53.640
So this is just to give you an idea about the difference.

14:53.640 --> 14:56.760
For example, this is from the Dutch materials.

14:56.760 --> 15:02.520
The VOC, the Dutch East Indian companies, which ruled Taiwan for 38 years.

15:03.080 --> 15:11.880
And this is the first Taiwanese political and social movement speech organ for this

15:11.880 --> 15:17.080
so-called Taiwan self-rule movement during the Chinese period.

15:18.600 --> 15:26.280
There's also a lot of diaries about various local elites also published by our museum

15:26.280 --> 15:29.480
together with other, for example, the Institute of Taiwan History.

15:32.600 --> 15:39.400
I will not talk much about the exhibition because it will be the major focus of analysis

15:39.400 --> 15:39.800
today.

15:39.800 --> 15:48.360
But our museum features a permanent exhibition and also has been designed and showcased more

15:48.360 --> 15:53.080
than 100 different special exhibitions in our exhibition hall.

15:54.680 --> 15:59.320
And this is just to give you a general idea about how our special exhibition is.

15:59.320 --> 16:05.800
So you can see that it's only, it eventually ranges from various different perspectives.

16:05.800 --> 16:13.880
So there's religion and there are also earthquakes, environmental issues and there's something

16:13.880 --> 16:21.880
about maps and there's something about the Japanese pioneering into power and investigation

16:21.880 --> 16:22.520
in Taiwan.

16:23.320 --> 16:26.920
And there's also about water problems in Taiwan.

16:27.640 --> 16:35.720
And we also put a lot of attention about the Southeast Asian migrants in Taiwan and their

16:35.720 --> 16:37.080
living experience.

16:37.960 --> 16:43.960
So we also touch, although not very much, but also we touch on contemporary issues such

16:43.960 --> 16:48.520
as the 3.18., the Sunflower social movements.

16:50.040 --> 16:55.480
And there are also exhibitions on comics, on education, etc.

16:55.480 --> 16:58.760
So just to give you a rough idea about what we have been doing.

16:58.760 --> 17:04.840
And these two are the featuring special exhibition.

17:04.840 --> 17:12.840
Last year we have collaborated with our German counterpart on about divination or "suanming"

17:12.840 --> 17:17.800
in Chinese to contrast the East-West worldview.

17:17.800 --> 17:25.640
And we were also celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the first very important Taiwan

17:25.640 --> 17:27.640
cultural association.

17:27.640 --> 17:30.120
Taiwan Cultural Association, Taiwan Wenhua Xiehui.

17:31.560 --> 17:36.840
Many leading elites, modern elites are actually members of this association.

17:36.840 --> 17:40.040
So there is a special exhibition on it.

17:40.600 --> 17:50.360
And we also provide a kind of alternative accounts, not so much focus on those heroes

17:50.360 --> 17:58.440
or big names, but also some different ways of how to understand this important era about

17:58.440 --> 18:00.680
Taiwan's enlightenment in the 1920s.

18:03.720 --> 18:13.400
Our public service sections provides service to different kinds of audience because we

18:13.400 --> 18:20.600
pride ourselves to be a museum for everyone, not just for some special guests or some officials

18:20.600 --> 18:21.880
or some scholars.

18:21.880 --> 18:30.680
So we have tried to offer open access services to those who are audiovisually impaired.

18:31.240 --> 18:42.760
And also some special policies are designed for those students, young students in some

18:42.760 --> 18:47.160
more peripheral or economic minorities.

18:50.200 --> 18:57.640
And we also offer different education measures from especially drama or theater is one of

18:57.640 --> 19:03.160
our strengths compared to other museums.

19:04.040 --> 19:11.320
So this special drama is actually performed by those who... They are not actors, they are actually

19:11.320 --> 19:13.080
performing their own experience.

19:13.080 --> 19:20.280
These are those brides married from Southeast Asia to Taiwan and their children in their

19:20.280 --> 19:28.040
descendants, who are now called the new Taiwanese, Xin Taiwan Zhi Zi, because has become gradually...

19:28.040 --> 19:33.160
For those who are familiar with Taiwan's demography, there are so-called four major ethnic

19:33.160 --> 19:40.120
groups ranging from Fujian, the Hokkienese, to Hakka, to indigenous Taiwanese.

19:40.120 --> 19:46.040
And also there's those who migrate with the KMT government after 1949, the so-called mainlander,

19:46.040 --> 19:47.160
the waishengren.

19:47.160 --> 19:54.440
But now we have the fifth ethnic group, which is those from those who came to Taiwan,

19:54.440 --> 20:00.760
especially in the 1990s, come from Southeast Asia and they become... They and their descendants...

20:00.760 --> 20:04.760
and actually their population are more than indigenous Taiwanese right now.

20:04.760 --> 20:07.960
So they've become the fifth ethnic group in Taiwan.

20:07.960 --> 20:16.280
So in general, we're trying to bring in all these different kinds of multi-ethnic society,

20:16.280 --> 20:18.520
the aspect of multi-ethnic society.

20:18.520 --> 20:25.880
So this is actually one important event when we invited them and they actually tried to

20:25.880 --> 20:35.560
come to our museum to perform their own story and this actually created a lot of responses, positive

20:35.560 --> 20:39.720
responses from the audience.

20:39.720 --> 20:45.400
In addition to the four major functions of museums, we also provide digital services.

20:45.400 --> 20:52.280
For example, we have a lot of our artifacts and research and also exhibition results has

20:52.280 --> 21:02.520
been digitalized and become accessible to our audience who not only can come to our

21:02.520 --> 21:09.560
museum to see for themselves and to experience the different kinds of museum exhibition,

21:09.560 --> 21:17.880
but also they can also access our resources from far away using internet and other digital

21:20.040 --> 21:20.600
channels.

21:20.600 --> 21:28.280
So this is, we have a very popular website featuring our collections.

21:28.280 --> 21:33.400
And we also have a very special website on the visual history of Taiwan.

21:34.360 --> 21:40.280
You can really listen, can listen on history by yourself, listen to the history by yourself.

21:40.280 --> 21:48.120
And we have a database on local history and we have a very popular website on Taiwanese

21:48.120 --> 21:49.240
women's experience.

21:49.240 --> 21:58.200
So that's just to give you a general idea about how National Museum of Taiwan History

21:58.200 --> 22:05.720
has been doing following its formal opening to the public in 2011.

22:05.720 --> 22:15.480
Right now, let me just step, let's step a little bit further into how the history of

22:15.480 --> 22:21.480
Taiwan has been featured and represented and narrated in our permanent exhibition.

22:21.480 --> 22:31.000
First of all, the theme of our permanent exhibition when it first opened to the public in 2011

22:31.000 --> 22:32.760
is called Our Land, Our People.

22:32.760 --> 22:37.160
In Chinese it's called Si Tu, Si Min, or This Land, This People.

22:37.720 --> 22:44.520
So it is actually trying to provide a new perspective for those who want to understand

22:44.520 --> 22:54.280
or to know about their own history, their history and their, not from some conventional

22:54.280 --> 23:01.160
perspective such as the expansion of Han Chinese, overseas expansion of Han Chinese,

23:01.160 --> 23:12.200
or the history of Han immigrants from, migrated from mainland China to Taiwan and other places.

23:12.200 --> 23:20.120
These are very important themes and has been the orthodox narrative during the martial

23:20.120 --> 23:20.920
law period.

23:20.920 --> 23:28.840
But there's other perspectives which are featuring Taiwan and Taiwan in and of itself, or to

23:28.840 --> 23:32.520
use more theoretical terms called Taiwanese subjectivity.

23:32.520 --> 23:40.680
This kind of view has been one of the major features of the newly emerged Taiwan Studies

23:40.680 --> 23:49.560
after the 1980s, especially in gradually developed into a new discourse or new way of envisioning

23:49.560 --> 23:52.760
Taiwan and Taiwanese history and culture in the 1990s.

23:53.400 --> 23:59.880
The Taiwan subjectivity is, although there are different connotations and even some fierce

23:59.880 --> 24:04.520
debates regarding how this term should be understood, but there's a general consensus

24:04.520 --> 24:10.840
that we should understand the history of Taiwan from the Taiwanese perspective.

24:10.840 --> 24:12.280
Okay, that's the basic idea.

24:12.280 --> 24:20.920
So Our Land, Our People - the exhibition is actually a ramification of this idea of Taiwanese

24:20.920 --> 24:21.640
subjectivity.

24:22.280 --> 24:30.680
So you can see that this is a general spatial arrangement of this, of the old permanent

24:30.680 --> 24:31.240
exhibition.

24:31.240 --> 24:39.000
So you can see that from when the audience takes the elevator to the second floor of

24:39.000 --> 24:43.080
our museum, they will first see a general map of Taiwan.

24:44.680 --> 24:52.840
And then through an interactive device, you can have your own face and become reflected

24:52.840 --> 24:53.800
in this screen.

24:53.800 --> 24:57.880
So it is an idea about the history of for everyone.

24:57.880 --> 25:05.240
So you can become - every audience can become part of our exhibition by using your or interactive

25:05.240 --> 25:05.720
device.

25:06.360 --> 25:13.880
And then you will have an overall view about Taiwan's early history or the major archaeological

25:15.000 --> 25:16.600
finding something like that.

25:16.600 --> 25:18.840
Then you will see a great huge map.

25:20.040 --> 25:22.520
You can see from another, I'm sorry.

25:22.520 --> 25:27.880
About the 16th and 17th century when Taiwan was a maritime frontier.

25:28.840 --> 25:36.920
And then you will have entering basically the exhibition order is chronological, but

25:36.920 --> 25:40.680
it is not strictly followed the chronological order.

25:40.680 --> 25:49.080
There are also some semantic design to featuring major events or some important issues of Taiwan

25:49.080 --> 25:49.560
history.

25:49.560 --> 25:59.480
So from the Dutch period to the rule of Ming loyalist Cheng Ch'eng-kung in the region and all the way to

25:59.480 --> 26:09.800
the more than 212 years of Qing rules, you can see that there's agricultural development

26:09.800 --> 26:15.640
and then some development about the town and the cities.

26:15.640 --> 26:22.920
And then in this section you will see, I'm sorry, I forgot there are some people not

26:22.920 --> 26:23.960
in this room.

26:25.240 --> 26:27.640
So let me use the mouse.

26:27.640 --> 26:35.880
So in this section you can see the 19th century Taiwan when it become a focus of international

26:35.880 --> 26:40.040
trade and some imperialist rivalry.

26:40.040 --> 26:51.240
And this part you can see there's a, oh, thank you.

26:52.440 --> 26:58.600
I'm sorry, let me return to my mouse.

26:58.600 --> 27:07.560
So in this section you'll see the different narratives about the once very famous Taiwan

27:07.560 --> 27:18.600
Republic in 1895 when the local Taiwanese organized to resist the invading Japanese

27:18.600 --> 27:20.520
troops armies in 1895.

27:21.320 --> 27:27.640
And this section is basically the Japanese colonial period all the way through the different

27:27.640 --> 27:33.000
various kinds of modernization experienced all the way to the Taiwanese experience on the

27:33.000 --> 27:41.000
World War II when some young Taiwanese, including indigenous Taiwanese were conscripted to fight

27:41.000 --> 27:42.440
for the Japanese empire.

27:43.800 --> 27:55.960
The original narrative end with the somewhat tragic ending about the transition between

27:55.960 --> 28:04.760
Japan and Taiwan and China and the tragic so-called 228 incident in 1947 when there's

28:06.280 --> 28:15.160
the popular uproar or popular protest was suppressed by the KMT government.

28:15.160 --> 28:19.400
And there's some people even use massacre to describe this event.

28:19.400 --> 28:27.720
So that's the general narrative about in our museum, the previous permanent exhibition.

28:29.000 --> 28:35.880
And I would like to emphasize that if you are familiar with the textbook version of

28:35.880 --> 28:41.160
Taiwanese history, if there's something Taiwanese history in the textbook, there's actually

28:41.160 --> 28:44.120
no such thing as Taiwanese history in the textbook before.

28:45.160 --> 28:47.400
It's actually a series of reforms.

28:47.400 --> 28:56.680
So it was not until 1995 that the students in the senior high school, they can have a

28:56.680 --> 29:01.960
special coherent section on Taiwanese history.

29:01.960 --> 29:08.680
Usually it was segmented in following the overall narrative of Chinese nationalist history.

29:08.680 --> 29:17.400
So for those who are familiar with this conventional textbook style Taiwanese history, the history

29:17.400 --> 29:20.040
actually consists of two major narratives.

29:20.040 --> 29:24.520
One is expansion or development of Han Chinese in Taiwan.

29:25.640 --> 29:31.160
The other is the major historical figures and their influence on Taiwan history.

29:31.160 --> 29:38.520
For example, from Koxinga (Cheng Ch'eng-kung), all the way to Liu Ming-ch'uan, those South Chinese

29:38.520 --> 29:48.600
officials - Qing imperial officials, they basically constitute the major figures in the conventional narrative.

29:49.400 --> 29:56.360
But in this exhibition Our Land, Our People, there's no famous figures.

29:56.360 --> 30:00.440
And there's no this very important events.

30:01.000 --> 30:10.440
What you have seen is the daily life of Taiwanese throughout the various time son the

30:10.440 --> 30:11.160
island.

30:11.160 --> 30:18.040
So that's the basic feature for our old historical narrative.

30:18.600 --> 30:21.480
So in a sense, it is a social history by itself.

30:21.480 --> 30:27.960
And not a political history in essence.

30:27.960 --> 30:31.080
That's the feature of our permanent exhibition when it was first opened in 2011.

30:31.080 --> 30:36.840
And how this coming to being is actually the product of various factors.

30:36.840 --> 30:43.720
One is the development of Taiwanese historical study itself, which I will cover more in

30:43.720 --> 30:44.760
tomorrow's lecture.

30:49.000 --> 30:59.480
And the other is actually the process of democratization and the growing recognition of

30:59.480 --> 31:05.240
people's importance, various people's, various groups of people's importance in constructing

31:05.240 --> 31:06.120
the island's history.

31:06.680 --> 31:13.960
So with these two different strains of thought that constitute the so-called Our Land, Our People

31:13.960 --> 31:14.520
narrative.

31:14.520 --> 31:21.240
So this gives you another idea about...

31:21.240 --> 31:29.320
So if you come to the second floor of our exhibition hall, what you have seen is something

31:29.320 --> 31:29.880
like that.

31:29.880 --> 31:37.800
It's actually a special reconstruction of major historical scenes throughout the history

31:37.800 --> 31:38.840
of Taiwan.

31:38.840 --> 31:48.440
Okay, with this in mind, let me go quickly into the new or renewed permanent exhibition,

31:48.440 --> 31:57.400
which after closing for 15 months for design and construction, formally reopened in January

31:57.400 --> 31:59.400
2021.

31:59.400 --> 32:02.840
That is before my coming to this post.

32:02.840 --> 32:09.640
This new, we called it renewed permanent exhibition.

32:09.640 --> 32:20.120
The old scene, our Our Land, Our People still remains, but there is a new framework for narration,

32:20.120 --> 32:23.320
which can be seen as an island of encounters.

32:24.440 --> 32:29.720
So if the so-called discourse of Taiwanese subjectivity

32:29.720 --> 32:37.080
is featured in the land and the people in and of itself,

32:38.200 --> 32:48.120
then the new or renewed narrative is actually trying to put Taiwan in a larger macro-maritime

32:48.120 --> 32:53.800
transnational comparative perspective and trying to emphasize Taiwan's position in Taiwan's,

32:53.800 --> 33:01.720
the fate of Taiwan is actually influenced by various regions and the interaction of people,

33:01.720 --> 33:07.080
culture, ideas, commodities, or geopolitical factors.

33:07.080 --> 33:16.920
So this development, actually the new narrative, is actually an extension of the old narrative,

33:16.920 --> 33:17.480
if I may.

33:17.480 --> 33:25.960
So let me show you some of the key elements in this new narrative.

33:26.520 --> 33:28.280
One is the idea of encounters.

33:28.760 --> 33:39.400
So you can see that this is actually a new artifact by indigenous artists.

33:39.400 --> 33:51.560
And he tried to use one of the legendary myths about one of the Amei/Amis tribe in Taiwan to feature

33:51.560 --> 33:59.080
in the burst of the island, to symbolize the burst of the island and trying to add on the

33:59.080 --> 34:06.280
old world map, the old context of the old map.

34:06.280 --> 34:09.800
So that is one addition.

34:11.400 --> 34:21.960
And the other is the inclusion of more and more indigenous stories from for those who

34:21.960 --> 34:24.360
are familiar with Taiwan's indigenous people.

34:24.360 --> 34:27.640
They are not one ethnic groups.

34:27.640 --> 34:32.840
They're actually right now we have more than 16 officially recognized indigenous groups

34:32.840 --> 34:41.640
in Taiwan with the ongoing indigenous rights movement and also so-called transitional justice

34:41.640 --> 34:41.960
movement.

34:42.680 --> 34:46.680
Maybe in two years time or three years time, the number will keep increasing.

34:47.480 --> 34:54.440
So this is actually something new, not only to the demographic configuration of Taiwan,

34:54.440 --> 35:00.920
but also the political imagination about what comes to you, this entity or the imagined

35:00.920 --> 35:02.840
community of Taiwan itself.

35:02.840 --> 35:10.760
So the story of indigenous people is actually a new and very significant addition to the

35:10.760 --> 35:15.720
old narrative, which is still more or less, although there is no big name, but they are

35:15.720 --> 35:18.280
still Han Chinese experiences in Taiwan.

35:19.000 --> 35:26.920
Right now, so the second feature of this new narrative is that it is more, it becomes a

35:26.920 --> 35:36.200
pluralist, a multi-ethnic narrative in comparison to the old Han-centric, Chinese-centric,

35:36.200 --> 35:38.760
Sino-centric story of Taiwan.

35:41.000 --> 35:49.640
So this sense of pluralism or multiculturalism becomes, and also the coexistence, if not

35:49.640 --> 35:59.480
competing, conflicting of various memories in Taiwan is also a new way of presenting

35:59.480 --> 36:00.920
the island's history.

36:00.920 --> 36:09.160
So we are no longer subscribed to one orthodox narrative, but we try to include, although

36:09.160 --> 36:17.160
we cannot exhaust all the narrative, but we're trying to provide a sense of democracy that

36:17.160 --> 36:24.200
by recognizing differences, by listening to different voices or recognizing those

36:24.200 --> 36:30.680
lost or suppressed or marginalized voices in Taiwan's past, we can work together for

36:30.680 --> 36:31.960
a better future.

36:31.960 --> 36:38.680
So this is also this element of memory politics is the third edition of the new narrative

36:38.680 --> 36:43.640
to our museum's permanent exhibition.

36:43.640 --> 36:51.320
And also there's another aspect which focuses on democracy or democratization of Taiwan.

36:52.040 --> 36:59.000
Until today, Taiwan's history has been featured as one of the major development, not only

36:59.000 --> 37:07.240
in economic success, but also in terms of the first or the most successful in the sense

37:07.240 --> 37:13.960
of democratization in Chinese society.

37:13.960 --> 37:21.080
But as you can see, especially in recent years, Taiwan's democracy has underwent a lot of

37:21.080 --> 37:27.720
changes if not when it's a very serious crisis and challenges.

37:27.720 --> 37:36.120
So how to consolidate the deepening, how to deepen the democratic culture of the time

37:36.120 --> 37:49.240
of political, democratic politics in Taiwan, it's become more and more pressing, especially

37:49.240 --> 37:53.240
facing the changing geopolitical situation.

37:53.240 --> 38:03.720
So in the new narrative, there's a whole new section featuring the post-war Taiwan history,

38:03.720 --> 38:09.640
which is not so, which only mentioned in passing in the previous version of our narrative.

38:09.640 --> 38:17.560
So in this new post-war narrative, we no longer subscribe to the economic miracle narrative,

38:17.560 --> 38:25.240
which is very popular in 1990s and earlier, this whole little dragon narrative, but focus

38:25.240 --> 38:35.960
on the challenge of Taiwan's democracy and the difficulty and even the frustration of

38:35.960 --> 38:45.800
Taiwan's democratization all the way from the 228 incident to throughout the white terror

38:45.800 --> 38:47.480
period.

38:47.480 --> 38:54.440
And gradually, you can see the emergence of local politics, the so-called Dangwai Movements

38:54.440 --> 39:02.600
and then gradually this various wars converge, become a social movement and all the way leading

39:02.600 --> 39:10.840
to the lifting of martial law and then facing the first presidential election and also the

39:10.840 --> 39:13.640
consolidation of Taiwan democracy.

39:13.640 --> 39:25.960
This new narrative is an important, a new addition of our new, renewed exhibition.

39:25.960 --> 39:35.720
And last but not least, if you have time to go through the permanent exhibition, before

39:35.720 --> 39:45.080
the ending part of the so-called Museum for Everyone, you will see some very important contemporary

39:45.080 --> 39:46.080
artifacts.

39:46.080 --> 39:52.440
These are our rapid response collection of the important social movements.

39:52.440 --> 40:04.040
So for example, these stones are those indigenous elites who have been camping for three years

40:04.040 --> 40:14.120
in front of Taiwan's presidential office to advocate for the land right and also the

40:14.120 --> 40:17.320
transitional justice of indigenous people.

40:17.320 --> 40:23.840
Although the work is still going on, but these stones have become our new collections, which

40:23.840 --> 40:29.080
in addition to the 3.18. Sunflower Movement.

40:29.080 --> 40:36.840
And this gentleman is actually a former political prisoner who spent more than 10 years in the

40:36.840 --> 40:43.800
Green Island and offshore islands during his youth years.

40:43.800 --> 40:49.800
And he now become an important advocate for human rights in Taiwan.

40:49.800 --> 40:59.280
And he attended various events to commemorate those victims of political prosecution, but

40:59.280 --> 41:09.000
also educated the younger generation to understand the price that the former generation has paid

41:09.000 --> 41:11.880
for Taiwan's democratization.

41:11.880 --> 41:17.540
But these new elements are also missing in our old exhibition.

41:17.540 --> 41:26.680
So then just to give you a general idea about what happened in 2011 and what is new or

41:26.680 --> 41:33.840
renewed in 2021 in our permanent exhibition narrative.

41:33.840 --> 41:35.840
Okay.

41:35.840 --> 41:45.160
And right now we are promoting a new idea using the public history or co-writing as

41:45.160 --> 42:01.960
a key collaboration, as a key concept to just to promote a new way of shared authority in

42:01.960 --> 42:05.520
Taiwan historical culture.

42:05.520 --> 42:11.120
For those who can recognize the Chinese, you can see that it is called "ni ye shi xie lishi de ren"

42:11.120 --> 42:15.460
So everyone can be a chronicler of history.

42:15.460 --> 42:21.840
So this actually, for those who are familiar with the American public history, there is

42:21.840 --> 42:25.100
a saying that every man is his own historian.

42:25.100 --> 42:35.080
Something in this spirit to try to bring in this idea and try to co-write or co-read Taiwan's

42:35.080 --> 42:37.800
history with our audience and readers.

42:37.800 --> 42:46.820
So it is no longer kind of a one-dimension, top-down museum initiated historical narrative

42:46.820 --> 42:48.920
to educate the audience.

42:48.920 --> 43:01.160
It's actually a more equal footing, more fluid, and more open-ended way of rethinking Taiwan

43:01.160 --> 43:02.160
history.

43:02.160 --> 43:08.640
So I think that can recognize some of the major spirit in this renewal and renovation

43:08.640 --> 43:13.480
of the historical narrative of Taiwan.

43:13.480 --> 43:25.840
I think I don't have time to show the field, but by way of inclusion, just to conclude

43:25.840 --> 43:39.200
with some very rough remarks, here is what we have been doing after celebrating our 10th

43:39.200 --> 43:46.480
anniversary and also our promotion to the third tier institution under the Ministry

43:46.480 --> 43:50.600
of Culture in 2021.

43:50.600 --> 43:58.360
So right now there are five Taiwan-related museums or national museums in Taiwan.

43:58.360 --> 44:03.560
One is what I've been saying, the National Taiwan History, the former Japanese colonial

44:03.560 --> 44:04.560
museum.

44:04.560 --> 44:10.480
And the second is the National Museum for Taiwan Arts.

44:10.480 --> 44:17.760
And in Taitung, there is a National Museum of Prehistory, Prehistorical Culture featuring

44:17.760 --> 44:22.760
indigenous culture and archaeological findings.

44:22.760 --> 44:28.720
And our museum, together with our counterpart, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature,

44:28.720 --> 44:34.680
was the last two museums promoted to the equal footing with the former three museums featuring

44:34.680 --> 44:35.680
Taiwan.

44:35.680 --> 44:45.320
So although we were formally opened to the public in 2011, it was not until 2021, 10

44:45.320 --> 44:55.840
years after that we finally were promoted to be the same footing with the other national museums.

44:55.840 --> 45:06.040
So for those who are familiar with the so-called International Commission of Museums, ICOM,

45:06.040 --> 45:13.280
last year in Prague, in their conference in Prague, there's a new definition passed with

45:13.280 --> 45:18.680
this majority, and it's after three years of debate after the Tokyo conference.

45:18.680 --> 45:24.200
So in this new definition of museum, there are some new elements that have been added

45:24.200 --> 45:30.780
to the conventional, to the consensus of museum workers.

45:30.780 --> 45:38.320
So that, for example, this collects, interprets, assesses, inclusive, diversity, sustainability,

45:38.320 --> 45:40.280
et cetera, et cetera.

45:40.280 --> 45:48.280
So that's just to give you an idea about what the trends of museum has been gradually changing.

45:48.280 --> 45:55.080
And we also, as museum workers in Taiwan, we try to respond positively to the changing

45:55.080 --> 45:56.600
trends.

45:56.600 --> 46:08.880
So we have attended the Prague ICOM 2022, and there's some of our publications featuring

46:08.880 --> 46:13.600
our museum experiences, as you can see from the PowerPoint.

46:13.600 --> 46:22.000
So there's actually various topics that's been collected and presented.

46:22.000 --> 46:31.240
As a response to the ongoing, gradually ceceding COVID-19 pandemic, we have a rapid response

46:31.240 --> 46:34.840
collection that started two years ago.

46:34.840 --> 46:44.880
So people can upload their photos and their thoughts or their comments directly to our

46:44.880 --> 46:55.760
specially designed webpage and to become a part of the COVID-19 special collections in

46:55.760 --> 46:59.720
our museum collection.

46:59.720 --> 47:07.160
We're also trying to work with our neighbors to become an animal-friendly park.

47:07.160 --> 47:20.040
And finally, we're trying to gradually develop our experience into a kind of more academic,

47:20.040 --> 47:21.760
some discourse with more academic sense.

47:21.760 --> 47:28.480
So there's, we collaborated with the Taipei University of Arts to publish the so-called

47:28.480 --> 47:32.200
Doing History in the Museum series last year.

47:32.200 --> 47:40.280
And there will be some new textbook on museology also.

47:40.280 --> 47:48.200
So let me conclude my very rough and jet-lag affected lecture with these two snapshots

47:48.200 --> 47:49.200
of our museums.

47:49.200 --> 47:54.800
If you have time to come to Tainan, you're more than welcome to drop by our museum in

47:54.800 --> 47:57.040
the beautiful afternoon.

47:57.040 --> 47:59.920
Enjoy the scenery.

47:59.920 --> 48:09.040
We have some very popular duck staff who will show your way to the museum buildings and

48:09.040 --> 48:16.880
you can enjoy the exhibition as part of the exhibition that I've been trying very hard

48:16.880 --> 48:20.600
to show you.

48:20.600 --> 48:30.040
So thank you very much for your listening.

48:30.040 --> 48:36.080
Thank you very much for this great excursion into not only your museum, but also into Taiwanese

48:36.080 --> 48:42.600
history through a very lively way of getting into the details of Taiwanese history and

48:42.600 --> 48:52.080
to see how it is composed of both imperialism and ethnic diversity, which are sort of two

48:52.080 --> 48:55.760
very different angles, but also many other angles.

48:55.760 --> 48:58.200
And we're extremely happy about this.

48:58.200 --> 49:08.360
We will have the second lecture with Professor Chang tomorrow at 14.15 to quarter past two

49:08.360 --> 49:10.120
in this same room.

49:10.120 --> 49:17.080
So hope to see you all here then.

49:17.080 --> 49:21.560
The title for tomorrow is Island of Memories, Critical Overview of Contemporary Taiwanese

49:21.560 --> 49:22.560
Historiography.

49:22.560 --> 49:30.640
It will be basically a very boring discussion about academic history.

49:30.640 --> 49:35.440
Today is more lively with the museum and public history.

49:35.440 --> 49:37.760
Anyway, you're most welcome to come.

49:37.760 --> 49:44.320
And also just mention that next Tuesday, there is no lecture set up, but for those who are

49:44.320 --> 49:49.920
interested to prepare for one of the later lectures on Taiwanese film and cinema, there

49:49.920 --> 49:57.240
is a film screening of Gu Ling Jie Shao Nian Sha Ren Shi Jian, Brighter Summer Day, which

49:57.240 --> 50:03.780
will be shown then in seminar room two in this building.

50:03.780 --> 50:10.520
So on the ground floor of this building on next Tuesday.

50:10.520 --> 50:16.320
And then we will resume with lectures again one week after that.

50:16.320 --> 50:20.200
Always on Tuesdays, except for tomorrow, which is on the Wednesday.

50:20.200 --> 50:21.600
So we needed to grab-

50:21.600 --> 50:28.160
Just to show my appreciation for your patience, I've bring some souvenirs, which is our postcard

50:28.160 --> 50:35.800
published by our museum, just for your, you're most welcome to come and enjoy.

50:35.800 --> 50:40.200
And for those who are more interested in what actually had been taught in the exhibition

50:40.200 --> 50:49.640
with the illustration and narrative, I would leave this guide, tour exhibition guide here.

50:49.640 --> 50:55.960
That's for those who are interested to pursue a little bit more about our museum and the

50:55.960 --> 50:56.960
exhibition.

50:56.960 --> 51:05.300
And finally, this is a newly published book and we're receiving just in the Taipei Book

51:05.300 --> 51:07.040
Fair last week.

51:07.040 --> 51:09.360
It's called Visualizing Taiwan.

51:09.360 --> 51:11.960
And it is a series of three books.

51:11.960 --> 51:15.720
This is the second one, which featuring Time.

51:15.720 --> 51:18.840
The first one, Space, is published last year.

51:18.840 --> 51:22.280
And you can see that how our colleagues have been using the artifact of our collection

51:22.280 --> 51:26.280
to tell the story of Taiwan history.

51:26.280 --> 51:28.080
So I will just leave it here.

51:28.080 --> 51:32.560
And for those who are interested, you're more than welcome to use that as a reference for

51:32.560 --> 51:33.560
getaway to our museum.

51:33.560 --> 51:37.480
And looking forward to seeing you, hopefully in the near future in Tainan.

51:37.480 --> 51:44.160
Thank you very much again.

51:44.160 --> 51:46.960
Thank you very much again.

51:46.960 --> 51:54.280
Now there will be a thought break and then only those who have registered for the course

51:54.280 --> 51:59.560
will stay behind and continue talking with Professor John.

51:59.560 --> 52:26.480
So thank you all for coming here today.

Tags: Taiwan, Taiwan Studies, Taiwanese history, Colonial History
Published Jan. 4, 2023 12:53 PM - Last modified Mar. 3, 2023 4:10 PM