Special Issue: Local Knowledge and Practice
Special Issue Article
1. What Is Locality?: From the Perspective of Local Knowledge and Indigenous Category
Hung-Jen Yang Assistant Professor, Institute of Science, Technology, and Society, National Yang-Ming University
2. The Development and Challenges of Local Historical Studies
Yu-Fong Wang Assistant Professor, Center for General Studies, National Kaohsiung Marine University
3. “Community Documentary” as Cultural Policy: A Critical Review
Chin-Tong Tsai Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary & Film Archiving, Tainan National University of the Arts
4. The Change of “Tsau-di”: How the Landscape of a Rural Village Transformed from Qing Dynasty to the 1970s
Jia-Shin Tsai Research Assistant, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
5. The Symbolic Struggle in the Action of Concerning the Rural Regeneration Act
Yi-Ting Chung Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University
Book Review
1. New Field of Chorography Study: Critique on “Studies on Expansion of Chinese Chorography to Japan” by Zhao-Xiang Ba
Chia-Ling Kuo Doctoral student, Department of History, National Chung-Hsing University
Research Article
1. Evaluating Feminist Multiple Perspectives on War and Peace
Ching-Chane Hwang Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University
2. Gender Differences on the Best Marriage Timing: A Simulation Match Study of Mate Selection by Taiwan Data
Jung-Fu Chang Associate Professor, Department of Social and Regional Development, National Taipei University of Education
Special Issue Article
What Is Locality?: From the Perspective of Local Knowledge and Indigenous Category
Hung-Jen Yang
Assistant Professor, Institute of Science, Technology, and Society, National Yang-Ming University
In the wake of community making in Taiwan’s society in the 1990s, the issue of locality has become urgent. What characterizes “locality”? From outside the community, those actors engaged in the movement of community making hold a set of knowledge and practice, as well as conceptual categories, about long-term social reform; how would these ideas about knowledge and categories from outside influence, or be influenced by, those rooted in the locality?
This paper intervenes in the discussion of locality from the concept of “boundary,” with a view to defining and complicating the meaning of “locality.” The actors engaged in community making are required to commit themselves to the double actions, “boundary maintenence” and “social reform,” within the boundaries of the locality, established by kinship, local connections, and worships. In the movement of community making, the most significant aspect of indigenous category is “public engagement.” Under the influence of those extrinsic categories, such as civil society and citizenship, locality has to be reconsidered in practice and a new way of translating the extrinsic categories into indigenous categories has to be discovered.
Keywords: boundary, civil society, cultural translation, indigenous category, local knowledge, public engagement
The Development and Challenges of Local Historical Studies
Yu-Fong Wang
Assistant Professor, Center for General Studies, National Kaohsiung Marine University
The rise of local historical studies happened at around 1990s, with its research focuses on the socio-economical development of each local administrative area in Taiwan. Unlike traditional local studies, the new wave of local historical studies was very much supported by Taiwan historical academia as well as influenced by grass root movements of community building, which in turn brought new energy into historical studies in Taiwan.
Looking back at the boom of local studies in recet years, this essay reveals that in almost every county and town, there are various institutions devoted to this filed, and the most important ones include local governments, universities, community colleges and civil society organizations. The later two, while closely involve in grass root movements of community building, do not yield fruitful results as compared with local governments and universities due to limitations in resources. The main player of local studies had been shifted to local governments, who very actively organize seminars on a yearly basis per the needs of its policies. This has gradually smother the zeal and enthusiasm of local historical studies and become a great challenge for its long-term development.
Keywords: study of local history, local government, community college, grass-root community building
“Community Documentary” as Cultural Policy: A Critical Review
Chin-Tong Tsai
Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Studies in Documentary & Film Archiving, Tainan National University of the Arts
This article discusses the nature and transformation of “community documentary” as cultural policy in Taiwan. It is divided into three kinds of governance strategy including transferring technique, visualizing place and exhibiting image. All the discussions of different strategy are positioned in the context of community building and stressing the tendency towards documentary as record, archive and practice.
Keywords: documentary, community building, “community documentary”
The Change of “Tsau-di”: How the Landscape of a Rural VillageTransformed from Qing Dynasty to the 1970s
Jia-Shin Tsai
Research Assistant, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
By incorporating fieldwork interview, literature review, and visual representation, this paper examines the historical changes of Tugou village, a rural village located in the Jia-Nan Plain of Southwestern Taiwan. In local dialect Hokkien, Tugou is named as “Tsau-di” (grass-land), which is a common name for countryside in Taiwan. But how does this rural grass-land becomes a rural village nowadays remains unseen in academic research. To understand the changing landscape in rural Taiwan, the author conducted interviews with local Tugou residents from summer 2007 to spring 2008 and collected information from fieldwork as well as from historical maps. Due to the lack of primary documents from Tugou, such as family tree records, extant land deals, or even photos, this author reconstructs the visual presentation of Tugou’s historical landscape and analyzes the drawings here. The analysis shows that, on the one hand, in transition from Qing Dynasty, Colonial Period to the seventies, the landscape of Tugou has been homogenized as flat and accessible for farming. On the other hand, residents’ relations with local environment have become more alienated than before. To sum up, this historical, visual analysis of Tugou’s landscape and its relationship with local residents offers a crucial contribution to a better understanding of the everyday life in rural Taiwan.
Keywords: toponym in dialect, change of landscape, Tugou, Tsau-di
The Symbolic Struggle in the Action of Concerning the Rural Regeneration Act
Yi-Ting Chung
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University
Since the Rural Regeneration Act had passed the first reading, it had aroused the whole society paying attention on it. The debate between opponents and supporters is on the question if the rural in Taiwan will be revival or died. Along the axis, the struggle for the meaning of “what is rural regeneration” and “what will it be” has spread out. In the action of concerning the Rural Regeneration Act, agents involve in the struggle over the meaning in different ways and it was manipulate through symbolic power, while the civil society made confrontation through rooted in the local community.
The Rural Regeneration Act had aroused the whole society to concern issues of agriculture again. Although it had been legislated, the action of concerning has not over. What the article explored and we should understand is that the power presented by the state and authority is symbolic power, which is the power of discourse construction, and it will establish our cognition and belief. Also, it will rationalize the existed relation of politics and economy, and then reproduce the unequal social relationship. Therefore, the concerning action is not merely the struggle for the legislation of Rural Regeneration Act. The struggle over the meaning and ideology of rural will still continue.
Keywords: Rural Regeneration, symbolic power, discourse construction
Book Review
New Field of Chorography Study: Critique on “Studies on Expansion of Chinese Chorography to Japan” by Zhao-Xiang Ba
Chia-Ling Kuo
Doctoral student, Department of History, National Chung-Hsing University
Chinese and Japanese have been mutually influenced no matter on politics, economics, or on cultural exchange since very old age. Among those exchanges and influences from books of the Han dynasty east expanding to Japan, its expanding scale with very long-term history causes a very important content of cultural exchange between Chinese and Japanese.
Zhao-Xiang Ba systematically explains that the way Japanese collected Chinese chorography, discussed Chinese chorography’s expansion and changes in Japan, compared collected Chinese chorography’s versions and values from different organizations in Japan, and mentioned Chinese chorography’s editing influences to Japanese chorography by discussions of Chinese chorography east expanding to Japan. BA not only brings up his unique views, but also deepens research contents that Chinese chorography expanded to Japan based on abundant historic data and research modes of multiple subjects. The efforts offer precious references and create a new field of chorography studies.
Keywords: Books of the Han dynasty, chorography
Research Article
Evaluating Feminist Multiple Perspectives on War and Peace
Ching-Chane Hwang
Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Political Science, National Sun Yat-sen University
This paper intends to do the following jobs: (1) introducing various kinds of feminist perspectives on war and peace; (2) evaluating each perspective's strength and weakness and making some comparison among one another; (3) suggesting further research on some important issues.
These critical issues including some important debates as follows: (1) self vs other; (2) masculinity vs femininity; (3) essentialism vs non-essentialism; (4) war vs conditional just war; (5) conditional peace vs absolute peace and (6) equality vs difference.
We could be self and be other's other; therefore our attitude towards other could be various depending on other's attitude towards us. How does masculinity eventually lead to militarism and war? Is femininity actually related to peace? Can non-essentialists can really avoid the trap of essentialism? Does just war have truly objective standards? Conditional just war cannot be determined objectively. Is there a so-called absolute peace? What is the balance points between equality and defference?
Keywords: War and Peace, Maternal Peace, Masculinity, Femininity, Hypermasculinity.
Gender Differences on the Best Marriage Timing: A Simulation Match Study of Mate Selection by Taiwan Data
Jung-Fu Chang
Associate Professor, Department of Social and Regional Development, National Taipei University of Education
This study applies the “simulation matching model” for “gender differences on the best marriage timing”. The best marriage timing includes two concepts: the successful mating rate (SMR) which represents the mating difficulty and the mate-selection benefit (MSB) which represents the marriage willingness. In the model, individual's mating resources (physical attractiveness and income) and marriage market (the quantity and quality of the marriageable partner and competitors) will change as individuals' age change. The study has found: (1) the peak of women's SMR comes earlier than men's, but it falls down faster than men's. (2) The peak of men's MSB comes earlier than women's. (3) The peak of men's MSB comes earlier than the peak of SMR. Therefore, those young men, who would be willing to marry earlier, may confront a lower marriage opportunities. (4) In contrast, the peak of women's MSB comes later than the peak of SMR. Therefore, some young women may miss their highest marriage chance in their earlier age and become never married because of waiting and expecting for the higher MSB later. (5) Taiwanese men and women confront a dilemma of marriage decision, in which the peak of MSB and the peak of SMR does not match together.
Keywords: match, marriage age, marriage market, cross-national marriage
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