| dc.description.abstract | This study aims to construct the context of Taipei′s urban landscape through the historical development of Taipei City and the diversity of image archives, literature, and historical materials. The thesis explores the relationship between society, culture, and photography of Taipei City in the era of political transition from the perspective of photographers. Presented in the form of an exhibition catalog, containing five chapters and a selection of related photographic images, this study analyzes the historical development and related images of Taipei city from the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century. Through the modernized cityscapes and surrounding rural areas constructed and emphasized in different visual media of photography and painting, this study explores the ways of life of Taipei residents in photography produced during the period from the Japanese colonial rule to the 1950s.
The first chapter begins with a discussion of the historical progress of Taipei, demonstrating how the development of Northern Taiwan was driven by trading and commerce in the late Qing Dynasty, and how it was gradually transformed into a prototype of the modern city during the context of urban planning under the Japanese colonial rule. In the second chapter, the photo albums, Ehagaki postcards, and paintings related to Taipei during the period of Japanese colonial rule were surveyed. Through these different media, Taipei City was portrayed as an ideal modern urban landscape. The third chapter discusses the photographs taken by photographers who lived in Taipei; their works represented people’s daily lives and leisure activities in Taipei in a vibrant and lively visual style. In the fourth chapter, I study the photographic images of Taipei with strong military overtones. During the wartime, civil photographers cooperated with political propaganda for the government under the influence of nationalistic photography policy and documented military exercises, enlistment publicity, and casualties that revealed the real wartime Taipei. In the fifth chapter, the news photographs were used as references to inspect the scenes celebrating the liberation of Taiwan and the aftermath of the February 28 incident (also called the 228 massacre) in the streets of Taipei. The photography organization activities in the early post-war period also gradually flourished under the promotion of the cultural bureau, and the images display the revitalized and enlivened urban life of Taipei.
Taipei City, after being chosen as the colonial capital during the period of Japanese colonial rule, not only became a modern city but also an important icon of progressive development in Taiwan. The planned urban space and gradually constructed public facilities of Taipei City have provided a convenient lifestyle for people, and also made the city an important field converging the political, commercial, and cultural development. The exhibition catalog in this study is organized under different sections, demonstrating the transformation of Taipei city and suburbs under different regimes from the Japanese colonial rule to the takeover by the Republic of China government. | en_US |