Identity in Motion, History in Question: Horizons of the Visual Cultural Practices in Taiwan

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

How would one characterize Taiwan’s visual culture? Nicholas Mirzoeff identifies visual culture as a field that “is still so fluid and subject to debate,” which allows us to inquire about the visual changes in cultural representation from an interdisciplinary perspective. The discursive field demands further exploration when it is intertwined with the concept of Taiwan, an East Asian island where multi-layered historical legacies work together in shaping its cultural identity. Approaching the horizons of visual culture in Taiwan, this panel explores not only visual texts in the contemporary but also their pretexts in history. Here, “horizon” is not merely a meeting surface for the possibilities and limits of one’s perception. Found in the geological meaning, horizon also pertains to a layer of soil with particular characteristics, representing potentialities for archaeological inquiries. Such layers of horizons are not necessarily built upon a fine order, but have rather accumulated through disintegrated genealogy. Revolving around the concepts of horizon as a way to approach Taiwan’s visual cultural field, the four panelists begin from the contemporary and probe back into the historical layers of visual paradigms. Liu studies the modality of feeling in “around-the-island journey” through the lens of affective politics and the aftermath of visual fatigue. Chen analyzes the visual tactics of re-historicizing a colonial avant-garde poetry society in a 2015 documentary. Akamatsu researches postwar film genres and their role as pretexts to the Japan complex in Taiwan cinema. Finally, Wen inspects the magic lantern shows and the pre-cinema modernity in colonial Taiwan.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing-Diaspora

Session Organizers

• Laura Jo-Han Wen, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Kiki Ssu-Fang Liu, University of California, Irvine

Chair

• Chun-Chi Wang, National Dong Hwa University

Individual Presentations

• Visual Fatigue and Bodily Flourishing: The Affective Politics of Around-the-Island Journeys in Taiwanese Visual Culture - Kiki Ssu-Fang Liu, University of California, Irvine

• Faces Left-Out: Documenting and Re-Historicizing the Avant-Garde “Moulin” Poetry Society in Postwar Taiwan - Yun-Yuan Chen, National Chengchi University

• Japanese Images in Genres: Pretexts of the Japan Complex in Taiwan Cinema - Miwako Akamatsu, Otsuma Women’s University

• Phantasmagoric Empire in Times of the Other: Magic Lantern Shows and Pre-Cinema Modernity in Colonial Taiwan - Laura Jo-Han Wen, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussant

• Chun-Chi Wang, National Dong Hwa University