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錯置臺北城：循著學者的路人視角，從公園裡的銅馬出發，探勘百年首都的空間、權力與文化符號學
＝本書特色＝
★ 亞洲研究至高榮譽 ── 列文森大獎 獲獎力作
★ 文化偵探的首都伴遊，在物件史跡中把摸臺北城時空脈搏
★ 靈活驅遣臺灣歷史文獻、影像，以親民語言建構空間、權力、象徵符號的連環錯置劇場
不懂錯置，你將難以翻轉臺北。
挖掘出海島上、都會公園裡那匹馬的身世之謎，你才算是真正的臺北人。
「我的這趟旅程，自臺北新公園開始、結束，但不論從歷史或現代的角度來看，這都是一則關乎整座島嶼的故事。」
＝內容簡介＝
身為日夜俯仰於臺北城中的新臺灣人，我們從未如此出入表裡地凝視每幀物件之下的祕藏脈絡。多年前，一名外籍學者踏上寶島，行走其間，發出連篇探問奇想，成就這份田野踏查紀事。全書敘事自臺灣近代文化史發端，隨後由宏觀入微觀，一路檢視清代以來的地圖繪製，重探攝影師與導演眼中的臺北；在公共陳設及交通路線形塑的都會景觀環繞之下，追索市區銅像擺設位置的改易，並回溯日治時代以來各項展覽的殖民意識角力；最後，作者帶我們回到新公園的銅馬面前，將巨幅時空圖景折射出來的懷舊詩情，收攏、定格在文物身世謎團的糾繞懸念之中。
本書援引之理論統匯社會學、人類學、地方誌、文化研究等，集眾家之大成，文獻運用靈活扎實，筆下諧趣絲毫不減，在日常風景與學術媒材之間反覆對照，編織出這部空間、權力與符號交錯的首都風物讀本。「錯置」的概念隱蔽了這座現代都城撲朔迷離的歷史面容：文物舊跡的原初樣貌總暗伏於年積月累的人為疊加之中。執政者意志的作用力，在風吹掌磨的周身物件表皮下此消彼長，往往難以察覺，唯有翻轉才能再現。本書正是翻轉工法的成熟示範。
此乃作者身體力行的學研碩果，也是他對臺灣一往情深的知識贈禮。錯置的臺北，公園裡的馬。心，安居古城；夢，航向世界。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
「我曾走過各種人為營造的環境，不論是粗糙或別致、休閒或正式、在地或國際、新古典或後現代、霸權或反抗、無名無主或刻上了太多名字。為了更了解這些地方的來龍去脈，我必須漫步於歷史和學術文獻之間，探索更深廣的文化背景。為此，我不僅需要熟悉原住民在臺北盆地的聚落形式，也要懂得世界展覽文化的走向；我不僅鑽研日本殖民主義的運作模式，也接觸地圖繪製的歷史；我嘗試去了解蔣中正的個人崇拜，也不忘一探歐洲和日本公眾人物塑像的演變。這項研究便是兩種漫步交織之下的產物，結合了路人和學者的視角。」
「我主要的『文化錯置』模型脫胎自流體力學的現象：將某物置入液體中，會排開一定體積的液體，藉此便能測出該物體的體積。我挪用這樣的物理特性，來探討一種文化形式或現象如何『排開』其他文化，迫使其離開中心移至邊緣，但不致殘缺或完全消失。因此，新文化的『船身』移入了中心，卻仍然從邊緣位置來衡量，即便它已不屬於邊陲。」
★ 亞洲研究至高榮譽 ── 列文森大獎 獲獎力作
★ 文化偵探的首都伴遊，在物件史跡中把摸臺北城時空脈搏
★ 靈活驅遣臺灣歷史文獻、影像，以親民語言建構空間、權力、象徵符號的連環錯置劇場
不懂錯置，你將難以翻轉臺北。
挖掘出海島上、都會公園裡那匹馬的身世之謎，你才算是真正的臺北人。
「我的這趟旅程，自臺北新公園開始、結束，但不論從歷史或現代的角度來看，這都是一則關乎整座島嶼的故事。」
＝內容簡介＝
身為日夜俯仰於臺北城中的新臺灣人，我們從未如此出入表裡地凝視每幀物件之下的祕藏脈絡。多年前，一名外籍學者踏上寶島，行走其間，發出連篇探問奇想，成就這份田野踏查紀事。全書敘事自臺灣近代文化史發端，隨後由宏觀入微觀，一路檢視清代以來的地圖繪製，重探攝影師與導演眼中的臺北；在公共陳設及交通路線形塑的都會景觀環繞之下，追索市區銅像擺設位置的改易，並回溯日治時代以來各項展覽的殖民意識角力；最後，作者帶我們回到新公園的銅馬面前，將巨幅時空圖景折射出來的懷舊詩情，收攏、定格在文物身世謎團的糾繞懸念之中。
本書援引之理論統匯社會學、人類學、地方誌、文化研究等，集眾家之大成，文獻運用靈活扎實，筆下諧趣絲毫不減，在日常風景與學術媒材之間反覆對照，編織出這部空間、權力與符號交錯的首都風物讀本。「錯置」的概念隱蔽了這座現代都城撲朔迷離的歷史面容：文物舊跡的原初樣貌總暗伏於年積月累的人為疊加之中。執政者意志的作用力，在風吹掌磨的周身物件表皮下此消彼長，往往難以察覺，唯有翻轉才能再現。本書正是翻轉工法的成熟示範。
此乃作者身體力行的學研碩果，也是他對臺灣一往情深的知識贈禮。錯置的臺北，公園裡的馬。心，安居古城；夢，航向世界。
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
「我曾走過各種人為營造的環境，不論是粗糙或別致、休閒或正式、在地或國際、新古典或後現代、霸權或反抗、無名無主或刻上了太多名字。為了更了解這些地方的來龍去脈，我必須漫步於歷史和學術文獻之間，探索更深廣的文化背景。為此，我不僅需要熟悉原住民在臺北盆地的聚落形式，也要懂得世界展覽文化的走向；我不僅鑽研日本殖民主義的運作模式，也接觸地圖繪製的歷史；我嘗試去了解蔣中正的個人崇拜，也不忘一探歐洲和日本公眾人物塑像的演變。這項研究便是兩種漫步交織之下的產物，結合了路人和學者的視角。」
「我主要的『文化錯置』模型脫胎自流體力學的現象：將某物置入液體中，會排開一定體積的液體，藉此便能測出該物體的體積。我挪用這樣的物理特性，來探討一種文化形式或現象如何『排開』其他文化，迫使其離開中心移至邊緣，但不致殘缺或完全消失。因此，新文化的『船身』移入了中心，卻仍然從邊緣位置來衡量，即便它已不屬於邊陲。」
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
7 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Currently reading
May 16, 2023p.22 「然而就地質學的角度來看，臺灣和中國並無連結。與澎湖群島不同，臺灣島並非大陸棚的延伸，而使海底火山抬升的結果，一如環太平洋西區，日本至印尼間的各群島。」- WRONG
p.25 「...與後來接管臺灣的(外省)菁英相對照。」 - 菁英，Really???
p.56 進入正題後開始有趣了，很可惜書中無法提供每張提到的古地圖讓讀者對照著看
p 63
p.25 「...與後來接管臺灣的(外省)菁英相對照。」 - 菁英，Really???
p.56 進入正題後開始有趣了，很可惜書中無法提供每張提到的古地圖讓讀者對照著看
p 63
March 28, 2022
Happy to report this fairly academic book is concise but still covers a good range of information. It does assume a good chunk of understanding about the city to make full sense. I think the most interesting part to me was understanding why the heart of Taipei is so far inland, the relationship to Danshui, etc.
My one criticism is wtf is up with the whole chapter about a "mysterious" horse statue and really not that much analysis of post-1990 development. Seems very odd to spend so much time talking about Taipei/228 Park and not discuss Da'an Park or Taipei's relationship to the surrounding mountains or the rest of Taipei County, etc., and that those would've been much better chapter topics than the horse.
My one criticism is wtf is up with the whole chapter about a "mysterious" horse statue and really not that much analysis of post-1990 development. Seems very odd to spend so much time talking about Taipei/228 Park and not discuss Da'an Park or Taipei's relationship to the surrounding mountains or the rest of Taipei County, etc., and that those would've been much better chapter topics than the horse.
June 4, 2024
Explores all the most interesting elements of Taiwanese history, culture, and identity through the apt lens of Taipei. Surely my enjoyment was enhanced because of my familiarity with and fondness for the city, but the case of the Taiwanese metropole as a locus for a dizzying array of colonial policies, displacements, and competing identities is fascinating! It deftly disassembles something as plain as a map, road, or museum to its most foundational pieces, representations of the ideas of the people who live or rule(d) there. Academic but engaging; it contains some of the most salient sentences on Taiwanese identity I’ve ever read!
April 17, 2018
With a first time visit to Taipei next month, I thought I would read this study of Taipei to get a better understanding of it. The author describes parts of the city that show the influences of its Japanese, Nationalist Chinese, and Taiwanese history. It brings out key places, but I think it would have helped me to have been to these places before reading the book, rather then reading about them ahead of time.
June 3, 2016
Enormously interesting and well-researched. The non-sequiturial chapter on theory at the end would have been much better embedded in the preceding discussions and analyses.
December 17, 2023
This is a great book which explores the urban, spatial, colonial, social, and cultural history of Taipei through maps, photographs, films, newspapers, statues, and other historical documents. I thought it was an incredibly comprehensive urban history of Taipei. Because it was the only English-language book I could find on Taipei urban studies, I found it to be a great starting point as I prepare to choose a topic for my honors thesis in urban studies, which I am hoping to focus on some sort of historical, social, or cultural phenomenon in Taipei.
Allen makes an overarching argument that Taipei has experienced a series of "displacements" due to the historical shifting of interests between aboriginal people, Chinese settlers (during the Dutch colonial period), Qing imperialists, Japanese colonialists, Chinese Nationalists, and post-martial-law modern Taiwanese.
Methodology - Urban History of Taipei
A big strength in Allen's research is his expertise in Taiwanese colonial and social history and the ways he interplays this larger historical context with the urban and spatial history of Taipei. My favorite chapter was definitely Traffic in the City, wherein he mostly analyzes maps to explain the urban history of Chinese city walls/gates/magic squares, Haussmann-inspired Japanese boulevards, the politics of street names, and the placement of subway lines. Similarly, Display in the City and Statues in the City were well done as they placed key mnemonic institutions and their spatiality in the context of Chinese imperialism, Japanese colonialism, Kuomintang nationalism, and post-martial-law Taiwanese multiculturalism.
Methodology - Theoretical Framework of "Displacements"
The pitfall of Allen's work definitely lies in his poor framing.
To begin with, the book is called "Taipei: City of Displacements", so I expected a central part of his argument to be related to this concept of "displacements" and how it was being used as a framework to read space in the city. However, disappointingly, there is no preface to explain the overarching argument he is trying to make about displacements and how he is using this word. I assumed that Allen's intentions here were to skip the academic jargon and translate his argument into layman's terms, so I kept reading anyway. Unfortunately, two chapters in, I had no sense as to how he was using the word other than to describe different urban elements shifting in character, location, and nature to serve the interests of the ruling powers.
To assuage these feelings of confusion, I skipped to the postface in search of some theoretical grounding. However, I found that while the main parts of the book are grounded in next to no theory, this postface was laden with nearly incomprehensible theory. Here, Allen explains because 1) Taipei's residents faced forced migration and assimilation (based on the ruling government) and 2) its urban artifacts (such as walls, temples, monuments, and statues) faced replacement and removal, Taipei urban history is uniquely shaped by "displacement". He then explains the nuances of this "displacement" designation by likening it to fluid mechanics. In this section, he explains the nature of "presence-in-absence" and "displacement occurring in space that is vacated or weakened".
I do think that this book could have made a unique and compelling argument, had he better explained his framework of "displacement in the city as cultural and spatial fluid mechanics", placed it in the preface, and weaved it into the main sections of his book. However, because he failed to do all of these things, the structure of this book's primary argumentation structure falls flat, and is reduced to simple repetition. Readers are left with the understanding that "Taipei has experienced many displacements", but without an understanding of what displacements are and why they are a unique and groundbreaking analytical framework for reading cultural space in the city.
Overall, I do think that this book was really well-researched and gave an extensive and in-depth urban history of Taipei. I learned so much about the city and Taiwanese history, and I had fun reading it and learning about imperial, colonial, postcolonial, authoritarian, and modern spatiality in Taipei, one of my favorite cities in the world. Despite my qualms with methodological framing, the source collection and analysis was interesting and fun to read.
P.S. - I also had a fun time understanding the historical background of the places I had a personal connection to — I loved when he said that "Informal uses of the [Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall] grounds tend to occur in the elaborate garden areas and smaller open spaces between them", as it is in those garden areas where my first girlfriend and I held hands for the first time.
Allen makes an overarching argument that Taipei has experienced a series of "displacements" due to the historical shifting of interests between aboriginal people, Chinese settlers (during the Dutch colonial period), Qing imperialists, Japanese colonialists, Chinese Nationalists, and post-martial-law modern Taiwanese.
Methodology - Urban History of Taipei
A big strength in Allen's research is his expertise in Taiwanese colonial and social history and the ways he interplays this larger historical context with the urban and spatial history of Taipei. My favorite chapter was definitely Traffic in the City, wherein he mostly analyzes maps to explain the urban history of Chinese city walls/gates/magic squares, Haussmann-inspired Japanese boulevards, the politics of street names, and the placement of subway lines. Similarly, Display in the City and Statues in the City were well done as they placed key mnemonic institutions and their spatiality in the context of Chinese imperialism, Japanese colonialism, Kuomintang nationalism, and post-martial-law Taiwanese multiculturalism.
Methodology - Theoretical Framework of "Displacements"
The pitfall of Allen's work definitely lies in his poor framing.
To begin with, the book is called "Taipei: City of Displacements", so I expected a central part of his argument to be related to this concept of "displacements" and how it was being used as a framework to read space in the city. However, disappointingly, there is no preface to explain the overarching argument he is trying to make about displacements and how he is using this word. I assumed that Allen's intentions here were to skip the academic jargon and translate his argument into layman's terms, so I kept reading anyway. Unfortunately, two chapters in, I had no sense as to how he was using the word other than to describe different urban elements shifting in character, location, and nature to serve the interests of the ruling powers.
To assuage these feelings of confusion, I skipped to the postface in search of some theoretical grounding. However, I found that while the main parts of the book are grounded in next to no theory, this postface was laden with nearly incomprehensible theory. Here, Allen explains because 1) Taipei's residents faced forced migration and assimilation (based on the ruling government) and 2) its urban artifacts (such as walls, temples, monuments, and statues) faced replacement and removal, Taipei urban history is uniquely shaped by "displacement". He then explains the nuances of this "displacement" designation by likening it to fluid mechanics. In this section, he explains the nature of "presence-in-absence" and "displacement occurring in space that is vacated or weakened".
I do think that this book could have made a unique and compelling argument, had he better explained his framework of "displacement in the city as cultural and spatial fluid mechanics", placed it in the preface, and weaved it into the main sections of his book. However, because he failed to do all of these things, the structure of this book's primary argumentation structure falls flat, and is reduced to simple repetition. Readers are left with the understanding that "Taipei has experienced many displacements", but without an understanding of what displacements are and why they are a unique and groundbreaking analytical framework for reading cultural space in the city.
Overall, I do think that this book was really well-researched and gave an extensive and in-depth urban history of Taipei. I learned so much about the city and Taiwanese history, and I had fun reading it and learning about imperial, colonial, postcolonial, authoritarian, and modern spatiality in Taipei, one of my favorite cities in the world. Despite my qualms with methodological framing, the source collection and analysis was interesting and fun to read.
P.S. - I also had a fun time understanding the historical background of the places I had a personal connection to — I loved when he said that "Informal uses of the [Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall] grounds tend to occur in the elaborate garden areas and smaller open spaces between them", as it is in those garden areas where my first girlfriend and I held hands for the first time.
March 30, 2020
read for my book review in my history seminar - Well written, straight forward academic book that is not ~too academic~ that teaches you about the complicated history of Taiwan by using the physical urban space of Taipei as a framework. Allen's principal argument is that the contemporary construction of Taipei is a reflection of numerous displacements at the hand of cultural/political/social influences throughout history. Got a little repetitive - the book is very well researched but as a result the examples he lists can get a bit tiring because the point is just really getting driven home. Still an interesting study nonetheless.
August 6, 2021
Very well-researched and interesting book. Joseph Allen has offered unique perspective on cultural spaces in Taipei, from street names to city gate, to explain the island’s capital complex history and cultural dynamics.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews