Envisioning Taiwan

Yip June Yip

Description

In discussions of postcolonial nationhood and cultural identity, Taiwan is often overlooked. Yet the island-with its complex history of colonization-presents a particularly fascinating case of the struggle to define a "nation." While the mainland Chinese government has been unequivocal in its resistance to Taiwanese independence, in Taiwan, government control has gradually passed from mainland Chinese immigrants to the Taiwanese themselves. Two decades of democratization and the arrival of consumer culture have made the island a truly global space. Envisioning Taiwan sorts through these complexities, skillfully weaving together history and cultural analysis to give a picture of Taiwanese identity and a lesson on the usefulness and the limits of contemporary cultural theory.Yip traces a distinctly Taiwanese sense of self vis-a-vis China, Japan, and the West through two of the island's most important cultural movements: the hsiang-t'u (or "nativist") literature of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Taiwanese New Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s. At the heart of the book are close readings of the work of the hsiang-t'u writer Hwang Chun-ming and the New Cinema filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. Key figures in Taiwan's assertion of a national identity separate and distinct from China, both artists portray in vibrant detail daily life on the island. Through Hwang's and Hou's work and their respective artistic movements, Yip explores "the imagining of a nation" on the local, national, and global levels. In the process, she exposes a perceptible shift away from traditional models of cultural authenticity toward a more fluid, postmodern hybridity-an evolution that reflects both Taiwan's peculiar multicultural reality and broader trends in global culture.

Sujets

• Taiwan
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 07 octobre 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822386391
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

E N V I S I O N I N G

T A I W A N

Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society

Series editors: Rey Chow, H. D. Harootunian,

and Masao Miyoshi

E N V I S I O N I N G

T A I W A N

Fiction, Cinema, and the Nation

in the Cultural Imaginary

June Yip

D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S SDurham and London 

Duke University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of two organizations that provided funds toward the production of this book: Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Taiwanese American Foundation of San Diego

©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Typeset in Trump Mediaeval by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

For

David, Justin, Dylan, and Griffin,

who make everything

worthwhile

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Acknowledgments

C O N T E N T S

ix

Introduction: Envisioning Taiwan in a Changing World



Confronting the Other, Defining a Self: Hsiang-t’u Literature and the Emergence of a Taiwanese Nationalism 

Toward the Postmodern: Taiwanese New Cinema and Alternative Visions of Nation 

Remembering and Forgetting, Part I: History, Memory, and the Autobiographical Impulse

Remembering and Forgetting, Part II: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Taiwan Trilogy 

Language and Nationhood: Culture as Social Contestation 

The Country and the City: Modernization and Changing Apprehensions of Space and Time 

Exile, Displacement, and Shifting Identities: Globalization and the Frontiers of Cultural Hybridity

Conclusion: From Nation to Dissemi-Nation: Postmodern Hybridization and Changing Conditions for the Representation of Identity

Notes



Bibliography

Index

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

I am grateful to Reynolds Smith and the staff at Duke University Press for helping me to finally bring this book to print. I also want to thank the Taiwanese American Foundation of San Diego for the generous grant supporting its publication. It has truly been a long, long road. This project has been through numerous incarnations and is the result of many, many years of on-again, off-again writing. It would be impos- sible, therefore, for me to thank by name all of those who have touched it along the way. Instead, I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude to the countless individuals—professors, colleagues, and students—at Har- vard, Princeton, New York University, and—who have helped this project to fruition. Your teachings have inspired me, your enthusiasm has sustained me, and your insights and critiques have been invaluable to my work. My deepest dept of appreciation, though, is reserved for those who have been most intimately affected by my commitment to this project: my family. To my parents, Wai-lim and Tzu-mei, thank you for your patience, for your guidance, and for never allowing me to quit. To my husband, David, thank you for your unconditional love and nurtur- ing throughout these many years. Finally, I especially want to thank my children, Justin, Dylan, and Griffin, who have sacrificed more than they know. Thank-you for bringing me such joy and for reminding me daily of my priorities in life. Thank-you for your patience and respect—for under- standing that my closed office door means ‘‘Not now, Mom has to work.’’ I’m so happy I can finally say, without hesitation: ‘‘Boys, let’s play!’’