It is at history museums where one would expect the story of Taiwan to come together.
The museums in the previous chapters occupied a niche, providing a timeline from prehistory to modern times, with historic events and social and cultural consequences passed in review. The prime history museum in Taiwan is the National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan, which I visited in May 2018 as the last in the course of this thesis. Earlier, I visited two other, much smaller history museums, the private Taiwan Times Village, which commercialises Taiwan history, and the regional Kaohsiung Museum of History, for a localised perspective
10.1 National Museum of Taiwan History
As with most national museums in Taiwan, the National Museum of Taiwan History (NMTH) is a young museum, having opened in 2011. The permanent exhibition is named “Our Land, Our People: The Story of Taiwan”, establishing its ambition to tell the defining story. As the museum’s guidebook explains, the ideology of the museum is to tell Taiwan’s history from the perspective of the common people and step away from history based in the actions of those in power — a history based in consequences rather than on the events bringing these on. Carrying this through, the museum zooms in on contact with the outside world through trade, colonisation, and immigration, and how
different ethnic groups got their footing on the island and interacted with each other.
This is done from the perspective of the different ethnic groups for which a positive development for one was a negative for the other.
How does this work out in practice? To begin with the exhibition area, it is a huge central hall of a modern purpose-built building located in an expansive park. The symbolism of the architecture is extensively explained in the guidebook. The open space symbolises that history is continual — there is no clear beginning and end of historical periods from where the people stand. Life continues, and culture and way of life is passed down. Taiwan’s prehistory is presented quite academically, and restraint is shown in speculating on lineage between prehistoric peoples and todays indigenous tribes based on archaeologic research. However, a cultural link is put forward. The origins of myths and legends of Taiwan indigenes are suggested to originate from events occurring in prehistory and passed down through history.
Trade put Taiwan on the world map in the 16th century. First as a free haven for Japanese and Chinese merchants avoiding Ming government trade restrictions with Japan. Shortly afterwards, the Dutch and the Spanish arrived, opening up trade routes with Europe and Spanish colonies in the Americas and transforming Taiwan into a key trading site. The Japanese, the Dutch, and the Spanish all showed interest in colonising the island. The Dutch and the Spanish established settlements and extended their hostilities in Europe to Taiwan. It is especially the Dutch, settling in the present day Tainan area in1624 and holding on to their settlement to 1662, who have received a prominent position in Taiwan history. They introduced an administration and the production of sugar and rice for trade and encouraged emigration from the mainland to labour the fields. The lasting effect of the Dutch colonisation is debatable, but their meticulously held annals gives them a prominent place in Taiwan history. The
presentation at the NMTH puts this period in a broader perspective than a Dutch period and focusses on the conflicting interests of the foreign parties Taiwan was subjected to, and the effect of this on the demographics and social fabric of the island.
The first period of Taiwan-based rule was that of the Zheng regime, a remnant of the collapsed Ming dynasty. Zheng Cheng-gong, better known in the West as Koxinga, ran the Dutch out of Taiwan in 1662, and the Zheng family held onto power till 1683 when their rule was ended by Qing troops. As with the Dutch, their rule was mainly based on trade. The museum does not overly elaborate on this period which is remarkable considering the cult status Zhen Cheng-gong has in Taiwan. The Qing period is approached from the angle of Chinese immigration into Taiwan. The Qing administration tried to regulate this to avoid the danger of an accumulation of Han Chinese in a weakly controlled area. This led to widespread illegal immigration. The exhibition goes in depth into the interaction between indigenous people and immigrants, explaining how the immigrants increasingly encroached on indigenous land on the plains and in the foothills, forcing the indigenes to cope or move away. This led the Qing administration, in their drive to legislate, to categorize the indigenes as ‘civilised’
or ‘uncivilised’ depending, amongst others, on the level of adoption of Chinese culture.
With the ‘savage boundary’ running over the length of the island, the administration limited its control of indigenous people to the civilised. The NMTH is the only museum I visited that displays the indigenes in a socio-cultural context rather than based on ethnic characteristics. The exhibition on the Qing period continues with developing industries and societies developing around these industries, the rise of commercial cities and towns, and the importance of Popular Religion for the immigrant society. The Qing period receives ample attention in this museum, considerably more than in other
museums visited. The museum’s choice for focusing on society and culture proves to reveal a much richer source than the politics of that time.
The Japanese period is presented in much the same way as the Qing period. The attention to the events at the time of ceding Taiwan to Japan in 1895 sticks out. In the vacuum between the retreat of the Qing and occupation by the Japanese, a group of Taiwan elite declared the independent Republic of Formosa. This was immediately squashed when the Japanese arrived but guerrilla warfare continued for another six months. By highlighting this episode, the
image of a submissive Taiwan population is checked.
As also for the Qing period, the exhibition expands on
the lot of the indigenes, this time on the forced assimilation of the indigenes living in the mountains and the tension this caused, erupting in occasional violence. This
prompted even more extreme measures by the Japanese colonial government to disrupt the indigenous lifestyle. As for the development of Taiwan as a whole, the Japanese modernisation program is positively exhibited. Attention however is also given to the political and social movements of that time. This too underscores that the Taiwanese did not passively subject to colonial rule. This section ends with the war years, a period that is underexposed in Taiwan. Reserving judgement, an account of Taiwanese
volunteering or being conscripted into the Japanese army and of the many Taiwanese casualties is given. The bombing of Taiwan by allied troops is also displayed.
Figure 6: National Museum of Taiwan History (author's photo)
The post-war period receives decidedly less attention. Political sensitivities shine through in the display. While the periods described above are entertainingly presented with an arsenal of display techniques with extensive use of life-like models and replicas of buildings, ships, and more, in the last period, called “Towards a Diverse Democratic Society”, this is considerably less. The 228 Incident is explained, but with none of the emotions the human rights museums demonstrate. There is no mention of the White Terror, and the marshal law period is referred to as the ‘anti-communist era’.
This reads as a euphemism. When considering communism as negative, the term anti-communist has a positive twist. The museum’s narrative is that Sinification had a positive effect on the education level of the people and together with effective social economic measures taken, starting with land reform, resulted in Taiwan’s economic miracle in the 1970s. It was the increased standard of living this economic success brought that led to Taiwan’s democratisation. Activism is shown in the context of a controlled democratisation process. There is no mention of the human rights movement.
Looking back at the NMTH’s permanent exhibition, the history up to the end of WWII lives up to the museum’s mission of telling history from a people’s perspective.
It follows the narrative of Taiwan as a succession of colonisations and maintains an aura of impartiality. The period after WWII however is a distinct departure from this trend.
The martial law period is not equated to colonisation, an important element of the discourse of successive colonisations. This period is approached through government achievements rather than how the people experienced it (Lu 2012; Website National Museum of Taiwan History)
10.2 Taiwan Times Village
This commercial venue describes itself as an ‘indoor vintage recreational park’, and as such the largest in Asia. It is located in Nantou County’s Caotun Township, not far from Taichung, and opened in 2012. The reason I include this recreational park is its
intriguing slogan which, citing the English language guide, runs as: “A paradise that shines with the love of this land’s heritage, a world that concentrates [on] a century’s customs and culture of the four primary ethnic groups in Taiwan”. These four ethnic groups are Mainland Chinese, Indigenous peoples, Hakka and Hoklo, the latter of which is puzzlingly referred to as “Taiwanese”. For two groups there are replicas of villages.
There is a nondescriptive indigenous village and for the Mainland Chinese a military dependents village. For the Hakka the representation is not quite clear, but they are probably associated with the exhibit on farm life. The ‘Taiwanese’ are represented by a host of nostalgic displays all set in the 1950s, which include general amenities such as a police station, school, temple, railway station, and shops, but also more curious choices such as a police and military lookout, a Japanese street, and a retro brothel alley. These displays are brought to life with staff dressed in period clothing.
There is also a Taiwan history museum with a telling version of history shown.
Going against common insight, the Indigenous peoples are depicted as a homogeneous group of settlers of Malay-Polynesian decent, settling in the low-lying coastal planes but forced into the mountains by a mass wave of settlers arriving from China after the arrival of the Dutch. A contentious issue, race change, is brought in at this point. The display on this states that the early settlers came as migrant workers for the Dutch to work on sugar plantations and in rice fields, usually coming alone in the expectation they would return after a few years. Many ended up taking indigenous wives and, citing,
“… a new race was born: The Taiwanese”.
Emphasis is given to the fact that Dutch reports do not mention evidence of any administrative structure of the Chinese Imperial Government, the Ming at that time, in place. The narrative in the display continues with a notably negative account of the Qing period. The museum’s version is that the continuing flow of immigrants arriving were refugees, fleeing wars and famines on the mainland and attracted to Taiwan because of the Qing’s lack of control over the island. Efforts of the Qing to change this led to numerous incidents explaining the expression of that time of “Every three years an uprising, every five years a rebellion”. It was only in 1887 that the Qing gained full control of the island and made Taiwan a province of China, but they only did this to ward off Japanese interest, but, “the play did not work”.
The description of Japanese rule is decidedly more positive: “The Japanese occupation was harsh, but at least the Japanese were not corrupt”. It further mentions the great improvement to the island’s infrastructure and industry that the Japanese brought. Taiwan’s most recent history receives slant attention. It is more about what is not told that is revealing. It tells of how in 1945, the allies agreed to the occupation of Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek’s troops and, with no explanation for the dates used, then describes 1952 to 1972 as when the KMT built up Taiwan economically. The only other date mentioned is 1971, when Nixon and Kissinger made their “opening” to China. The display ends on a positive note: “Through the years, Taiwan has developed into a true democracy with different parties competing”. There is no mention of the tension over the handling of the KMT nationalist takeover and the 228 Incident and the unrelenting crack-down that followed of which remembrance has become a focal point around Taiwan. Although there is a replica of a military dependents village on display in the recreation park section, no mention is given to the influx of around two million
Mainland Chinese arriving in the wake of the communist take-over of the Mainland and
the effects on Taiwan’s demographics. Nor is there any mention of the martial law period.
Amplified by a nowadays rare bust of Chiang Kai-shek at the entrance, the message the Taiwan Time Village portrays is a nostalgic yearning for the 1950s, ignoring the repression of that time, and idealising a regime that, taking example from the Japanese colonial period, got things done. Multi-ethnicity is only used as decorum (Habecker 2015; Website Baodao Times Village).
10.3 Kaohsiung Museum of History
The Kaohsiung Museum of History (KMoH) is a regional museum concentrating on the history of the Kaohsiung area in southern Taiwan. This museum, operated by the Kaohsiung City government, opened in 1998. As also the National Taiwan Literature Museum in nearby Tainan, the KMH is housed in a former city hall. This too is a renovated Japanese colonial period building and so contributes to conserving the heritage of that period. The museum’s mission, stated in its English language museum guide, could be clearer. It mentions a number of generalities such as local historical research and preservation, maintenance of cultural assets, and creating a knowledge base of regional history and culture. More specific is “promoting the connection between cultural creativity and industry”, but with no mention of how. A visit to the museum in December 2017 shed light on this.
The museum has chosen not to show a timeline providing a chronological history of the Kaohsiung area, but to focus on certain topics. The permanent exhibition concentrates on the impact of the 228 Incident on Kaohsiung. Where the National Museum of Taiwan History breezes through the incident, the incident takes central stage at the KMoH. The incident is localized. The museum display text tells that Kaohsiung
suffered the most deaths and casualties as well as being the first city where civic leaders negotiating with the authorities were executed. The museum building itself, as seat of authority at that time, was the stage of intensive fighting in which high school students were involved. With a model this fighting is re-enacted. The museum not only shows but also reflects on the 228 Incident. It puts it in a human rights context and states that for closure it is important that perpetrators of the violence owe up to this and
apologise— a push for transitional justice. The dynamics of the museum is in the temporary exhibitions. At the time I visited, there was an exhibition on textiles worn for decorative purposes by immigrants from Fujian, the Min, which was put into the
context of women’s emancipation. Another exhibition was on distant water fishery by Kaohsiung fishermen where, next to accomplishments, also issues on marine
conservation are displayed, together with the poor scores Taiwan receives on this.
The KMoH is a small museum and the quality of the presentations does not come near that of national museums. The museum however grows on you. The topics are put in larger social historical context and the museum does not shy away from taking a stand, a characteristic that deserves mentioning in the mission statement (Website Kaohsiung Museum of History; idem-English pamphlet).
Although quality-wise there is no comparison, the narratives of the the NMTH and that of the Taiwan Times Village follow the same line. They both portray a Taiwan history of successive colonisations as taught in the Knowing Taiwan textbooks and exclude the repression of the martial law period. It is apparent that the martial law period is a
contentious period and has not yet crystallised in the story of Taiwan. Where the human rights museums, but also the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and the National
Museum of Fine Arts confront the repression, as does the KMoH, the NMTH is apologetic and the Taiwan Times Village even triumphant.