History and the built environment in Taiwan's southern capital

Abstract

This thesis is a study of history as it is made through the built environment in Taiwan. In order to explore this topic, I have chosen to focus this study on one particular locality in Taiwan-the city of Kaohsiung. In doing so, I analyse the multifarious ways in which the historic built environment of this city has been codified, restored, preserved and written about, and consider the relationship between these activities and broader historiographical developments. The thesis consists of six core chapters, as well as an introduction and a conclusion. The first two chapters represent an analysis of historiographical trends in post-war Taiwan, and a study of how these trends have been reflected in the island's built environment. In Chapter 3, a more empirical approach is undertaken, as I trace the development and latter­ day revival of colonial concepts of the South in Taiwan, and how these concepts have influenced the landscape of cities such as Kaohsiung (as well as the ways in which these landscapes are appreciated). The final three chapters deal specifically with Taiwan's "southern capital". Chapter 4 is a study of the ways in which this city, so often described as a place of no historiographical worth, has been furnished with a variety of official and lay histories over the last two decades. I then examine how these histories have been reflected in the city's historic environment: in Chapter 5, through a particular relic and its associated :'national" landscape; and, in Chapter 6, through a recently demarcated "historic maritime district". In terms of the themes discussed, this work represents an original approach to the study of history, and history-making, in Taiwan. It sheds new light on the relationship between the nation and localities in the history-making process in Taiwan. What are the dynamics of this relationship? And how do national and local histories inform or influence one another? Another, related question concerns the legacy of colonial rule in Taiwan. How are the architectural, and ideological, vestiges of fifty years of Japanese imperialism on the island now interpreted? And what role do they play in the making of new histories? Show more