Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation

by Leo T.S. Ching

In 1895 Japan acquired Taiwan as its first formal colony after a resounding victory in the Sino-Japanese war. For the next fifty years, Japanese rule devastated and transformed the entire socioeconomic and political fabric of Taiwanese society. In Becoming Japanese, Leo Ching examines the formation of Taiwanese political and cultural identities under the dominant Japanese colonial discourse of assimilation ( dôka ) and imperialization ( kôminka ) from the early 1920s to the end of the Japanese Empire in 1945.

Becoming Japanese analyzes the ways in which the Taiwanese struggled, negotiated, and collaborated with Japanese colonialism during the cultural practices of assimilation and imperialization. It chronicles a historiography of colonial identity formations that delineates the shift from a collective and heterogeneous political horizon into a personal and inner struggle of "becoming Japanese." Representing Japanese colonialism in Taiwan as a topography of multiple associations and identifications made possible through the triangulation of imperialist Japan, nationalist China, and colonial Taiwan, Ching demonstrates the irreducible tension and contradiction inherent in the formations and transformations of colonial identities. Throughout the colonial period, Taiwanese elites imagined and constructed China as a discursive space where various forms of cultural identification and national affiliation were projected. Successfully bridging history and literary studies, this bold and imaginative book rethinks the history of Japanese rule in Taiwan by radically expanding its approach to colonial discourses.

Genres: History, Japan, Nonfiction, Japanese History

280 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2001

About the author

Associate Professor of Asian and African Languages and Literature, Duke University

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I'm currently mainly interested in Japan's colonization of Korea, Ching's book should not be discounted because it focuses on Taiwan. In fact, Ching offers a very solid theoretical framework that fills the many lacunae that currently exist within postcolonial theory. Rather than treating Japan as an Other, whose colonial tendencies should be differentiated from the dominant West (and there are some interesting peculiarities), the author opts to treat Japan's historical case as another example of the institutionalized system of colonization. This doesn't mean we should ignore Japan's historical specifics, but we should try to acknowledge that Japan as another historical player in the Imperialist game.
The first chapter covers academic studies of colonial Taiwan in Japan, Taiwan, and China, and addresses their inadequacies, as well as some shortcomings of the postcolonial field as a whole. His second chapter covers the "cultural" aspect of colonial rule, exploring political movements within Taiwan and how they navigate between struggles for independence and participation within Japanese politics. The third chapter focuses on the shift from "cultural rule" ('dōka') and full-scale assimilation and imperialization after the escalation of the war in China ('kōminka'). Chapter four focuses on the Musha Uprising and representations of the aborigine, offering an interesting insight not only into the absurdity of racial and cultural representations in Japan (and the "West") at the time, but how assimilation presents a complicated double-bind of "living as Japanese" while never being able to fully integrate within the colonizers' society. The final chapter looks at issues in identity politics, problematizing the dominant role of so-called "identity theory," through an interesting reading of Wu Zhou-li's 'The Orphan of Asia.'
In short, I have very few complaints about this book. It is theoretically satisfying, eschewing the dense archival research that many historians tend to prefer (I earlier complained that Mark E. Caprio's 'Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea' did the opposite, forgoing more complex theory). It's definitely readable for anyone who has a rudimentary background in the field, but somehow manages to simultaneously reconfirm and challenge solidly established concepts. In fact, I was in disbelief as I first began reading because it is so rare for me to encounter a book that I agree so wholeheartedly with, which also manages to challenge many of my established viewpoints. This is the kind of book that deserves to be read outside of not only the context of Japanese imperialism in Taiwan, but also outside of the context of Japanese colonization in general, as it offers many theoretical insights to postcolonial studies as a whole. I can't recommend this book any more than I already have.

[Gee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable post-modern, deconstructionist drivel on a topic that's actually interesting and worth exploring. The fact that the author is an academic at Duke speaks volumes about the current state of the academy; it's as if he was looking to score as many Derrida points he could in the minimal number of passages.

a sampling for your enjoyment: "formed the terrain where contradictory, conflicting, and complicitous desires and identities were projected, negotiated, and vanquished" ... "Nor is it an attempt to trace the various manifestations and continuities of metropolitan culture within the symbolic order of the postcolonial states. Rather, the inquiry into the cultural legacy of colonialism is intended to examine the workings of colonialism not in the logic of its development, but as an irreducible predicament."

Barf. Utter garbage.

[Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather, the bodily procedures must presuppose the furtive presence of the colonial state and the massive mobilization effor...

It is writing like this that made me quit this book!!!!

The start sounded interesting with the short story about what is behind that visit by the Taiwanese to that Yasugumi shrine: returning spirits to Taiwan. And that was connected to the problem of citizenship of the non-Japanese within the empire that the categories of "Japanese" (in doka) and "imperial subjects" (in kominka) were constructed and mobilized. Also, Japan even thought of giving Taiwan to some other imperial power, even back to China. Also, in Taiwan the sudden void left by the Japanese colonizer after "liberation" was filled not by the Taiwanese but by the takeover army from mainland China. The graft and corruption of the mainlanders fostered in the Taiwanese a deep resentment against the Chinese, and they consequently reconstituted and reimagined their colonial relationship with Japan. That is so ironic.
It was also interesting how in Japan there was a man named Watsuji who, occupying the position of the Japanese imperialist in China, refused to see the structural similarity between Japanese and Western imperialism. He launched a strong condemnation of Anglo-American imperialism and Eurocentrism. Apparently, there was "a displacement of a certain colonial guilt about the imperialism of his own country that finds its outlet in the description of the brutality of Anglo-American imperialism."
One thing was odd to me early on: you see, the statement about Taiwanese being made "incomplete" Chinese due to Japanese colonialism and then how few knew of Chiang Kai-shek or spoke Mandarin could be interpreted as if this is due to Japanese colonialism, when, as far as I know, most residents of Taiwan had never spoken Mandarin for centuries at those times, the majority language was Hokkien.
And how does he define "The West" here? He speaks of the time during the Cold War, so is all of Europe "the West" in his mind?
And sure, this book is from 2001 so I will give the author a pass when he asks what western power ever spoke of compensation for their former colonies, because I am pretty sure my country did. Then again, who knows what he understands under compensation or even "The West" as he mainly speaks of the British and the French empires so far, the rest are only shortly covered or barely mentioned.
And reading how the USA & Co. acted towards Japan after WWII reminds me so much of their behavior towards West Germany afterwards, so incredibly similar in my eyes. Which also makes me pissed off even more when I hear claims that somehow the USA raised Holocaust awareness in Germany. If they cared at all it was very low key, Germans did raise awareness on their own.
However, at this point (about 20 % into the book), I was progressing very slowly with this, the author got into blablablabla territory. Also, the text flows better without all those words that I don't understand. This had gotten so boring that I was thinking of skipping ahead to the next chapter. If this were written in German, I might be able to understand all those "big" words but as this is written in English, I often ask myself what he is writing about.
Either way I stopped at this point and didn’t care anymore.

[Pei-jean Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no doubt that when one thinks of colonialism one envisions images of the great European powers forcing their belief system and way of life all around the world. It’s easy to forget that for 50 years Taiwan was a colony of Japan which although brief has left its mark on Taiwan in a post WWII world.

It is this world that my mother herself was born into albeit she was still a baby when Japan surrendered this bringing an end to its reign over Taiwan.

Cultural identity is a difficult thing to establish when you’ve been influenced by not only the mainland of which you are ethnically bound, but also the influence of a foreign power who has endeavoured to assimilate you into their culture. Given the recent events and of course my family background the Taiwanese identity is going to stay a contentious topic for many years to come.

Whether you agree with colonialism or not this is quite an interesting look into how the influence of Japan has shaped the way the people of Taiwan then and now view their own cultural identity.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important addition to the study of Taiwan and its inclusion in greater postcolonial discourse.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book immensely profound. Much of it is examining literature and is conceptual, but it is never absolutely impossible to understand. Alex wrote a great in depth review on this book.

[Mills College Library]

951.24904 C5398 2001