Byline:JIM HWANG
Publication:Taiwan Review
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Hu Shi, one of the key figures initiating the New Culture Movement in the mid-1910s (File Photo)
A century of cultural development in the Republic of China has created today’s diverse, modern society.
Culture lays the foundation for civilization. Politics, however, has always played a guiding role in the conception and development of Chinese culture. The Republic of China’s (ROC) cultural scene in the past century is no exception. The founding of the ROC in 1912 marked the end of thousands of years of imperial rule in China, but some of the old mindset lingered. Yuan Shi-kai, 1859–1916), the first president of the ROC, attempted to declare himself an emperor, while being impotent to protect his “empire” from the foreign powers that had oppressed China since the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911).
The situation quickly became unacceptable, and some of the emerging middle class and cultural leaders stood up to call for a change by initiating the New Culture Movement in 1915. Principal figures of the movement, including Chen Duxiu (1879–1942), Tsai Yuan-pei (1868–1940), Lu Xun (1881–1936) and Hu Shi (1891–1962), believed that traditional Chinese values were responsible for the political weakness of the nation and called for the creation of a new Chinese culture based on Western standards, especially “Mr. D” and “Mr. S,” as democracy and science were sometimes called at the time.
A large number of Western doctrines and translations became fashionable, particularly those that reinforced the cultural criticism and nation-building impulses of the movement. Scholars were also enthusiastic in sharing their own views through various publications. The journal New Youth founded by Chen Duxiu in 1915 was a leading forum for debate, while a substantial literary establishment including publishing houses, journals and literary societies provided the foundation for an active literary and intellectual scene. Movement leaders including Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi started to promote the use of vernacular Chinese instead of classical Chinese as a written form of Mandarin. “I write what I say” was promoted by these scholars, who believed that classical Chinese was understood only by scholars and officials, while the new format would allow people with little education to read.
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ROC President Chiang Kai-shek, right, meets then California Governor Ronald Reagan in 1971. Close US-Taiwan ties enabled a significant American cultural influence on Taiwan. (File Photo)
The New Culture Movement focused on a range of topics. Through the efforts of the movement’s promoters, the Chinese people started to learn more about the ideas of individual freedom and women’s liberation, while they were also introduced to the values of democracy and egalitarianism. Marxism, which led to the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and separation of the country, was also introduced by the movement. Some of the leaders such as Chen Duxiu later became founding members of the CCP. Although China suffered civil war between warlords and the government, historians see the period of the New Culture Movement, which extended from approximately 1915 to 1927, as one of the freest times in Chinese history from the point of view of cultural development.
The Nationalist Army’s victory over China’s warlords saw the unification of the country, marked the beginning of the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CCP, with the Sino-Japanese War following later. The cultural policy at the time was to “eliminate dissent,” and thus the themes for most cultural activities expressed either anti-Japanese or anti-communist sentiment. Meanwhile, President Chiang Kai-shek initiated the New Life Movement in 1934. The movement aimed at the promotion of everyday life guided by the four virtues of ritual, righteousness, integrity and a sense of shame. “The four virtues are the essential principles for the promotion of morality,” Chiang said in a speech he delivered in Nanjing, China in 1934. “They form the major rules for dealing with men and human affairs, for cultivating oneself and for the adjustment of one’s surroundings.”
In some ways, the New Life Movement can be seen as a social vehicle aimed at building up morale in a nation that was besieged by corruption, factionalism and opium addiction. It did so by encouraging the good conduct of individuals such as extending courtesy to neighbors, following rules set by the government and conserving energy, among other behavior. But it can also be interpreted as a cultural movement as it attempted to counter communist ideology with a mix of traditional Confucianism, Christianity and nationalism. While some have praised the movement for its role in raising the quality of life somewhat during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), others have criticized it as impractical when the people were suffering because of the armed conflict. The New Life Movement was “suspended” in 1949 when the Nationalist government relocated to Taiwan.
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Taiwanese opera was suppressed by both the Japanese and Nationalist governments in the past century. (File Photo)
Taiwan’s modern culture has been shaped largely by waves of immigration and colonization. Although the rich cultural traditions of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have existed for millennia, much of these have been lost or marginalized in recent times. Early immigrants from China brought with them Chinese culture, and then there were the Dutch, the Spanish, the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasty courts, as well as the Japanese. For the majority of its cultural history, however, Taiwan remained on the margins, far from the centers of civil and cultural life of each regime. Nevertheless, with each regime change, the island’s cultural identity shifted a little.
By the time the ROC was founded in 1912, Taiwan was a colony of Japan, having been ceded by the Qing court in 1895. The colonial government initially had a relatively tolerant cultural policy that, while carrying out “Japanese-style Westernization,” gave Taiwan the opportunity to shift gradually from local to contemporary global culture. Activities related to folk culture and religion were also allowed. In addition to setting up facilities such as museums and research institutions, Western and Japanese arts such as stage plays and Japanese-style painting were also brought to Taiwan. By the mid-1930s when Japan was preparing for war, however, the colonial government invigorated policies to “Japanize” or “imperialize” Taiwan for mobilization against the Allies. The Taiwanese people were forced to adopt Japanese names, speak Japanese and were banned from participating in non-Japanese cultural activities.
The colonial era ended with the close of World War II in 1945, but 50 years of Japanese rule left plenty of traces in Taiwan. Many Japanese terms, for example, are still commonly used now. Japanese food also had an influence on Tai-wanese cuisine.
Cultural Control
The ROC government moved to Taiwan and declared martial law in 1949. Along with various cultural assets, it also brought from mainland China the cultural policy to “eliminate dissent.” So when Taiwanese began to resume cultural activities that had been banned by the Japanese, the government’s attitude was that locals should first complete a period of moral and ideological tutelage to “align” their values with those of the Nationalist government before they could enjoy their full rights as citizens. Strict government censorship was enforced and many of Taiwan’s urban elite were imprisoned or executed so that the arrival of the mainlanders would ensure Nationalist dominance of urban cultural centers.
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A protest against the break of official ROC-US ties. Setbacks in international politics in the 1970s forced Taiwan to reexamine its own cultural resources. (File Photo)
In 1953, Chiang Kai-shek issued his first major opinion on culture, which included prescribing a Nationalist curriculum for education, building facilities for intellectual and physical recreation and instituting the important state cultural program of promoting anti-communist propaganda. In order to counter the Cultural Revolution of mainland China that began in 1966, the ROC government began promoting the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement in the same year. The movement included a series of programs designed to promote traditional Chinese culture in response to the communist movement on the mainland, which aimed at uprooting tradition. The programs in Taiwan involved subsidized publication of Chinese literature classics, the building of the National Palace Museum, and textbook and curriculum design based on the official view of traditional Chinese culture. The government also sponsored social and community events focused on that traditional Chinese culture, as well as promoted Confucian ideology intertwined with the thought of Sun Yat-sen.
Focusing on the preservation of traditional Chinese culture, however, also meant that expressions of Taiwanese “local” culture were suppressed. While, for example, there were plenty of Peking opera shows in theater halls and on television, broadcast time for Taiwanese opera and glove puppet shows that used Taiwanese “dialect” was limited. In fact, Mandarin was mandated for education as early as 1951, while in 1963 at least half of all television and AM radio broadcasts had to use the language. That figure had increased to 70 percent by 1976. Moreover, the themes of all publications including literary works, newspapers, movies, television and radio programs had to follow government ideology. In the visual arts, traditional Chinese ink paintings were valued more than paintings in Western or Japanese styles. Basically, the government dominated public cultural space and Chinese nationalist networks became a part of cultural institutions, leaving few resources to enable the growth of grassroots culture.
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National Taiwan Museum was built by the Japanese in 1908. Fifty years of colonial rule left traces of the Japanese influence throughout the island. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
The only “alien” influence in Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s was American culture. Close cooperation between the two countries in many areas encouraged Taiwanese to resume some “neutral” cultural activities from the United States such as exhibitions, music and sports. Although American cultural activities were limited, they played a significant role in Taiwan’s developing cultural scene because they represented local people’s first direct contact with Western culture.
Changes in international politics in the 1970s brought changes to Taiwan’s cultural scene. After losing its UN seat in 1971, formal diplomatic ties between the ROC and a number of countries were severed. In the years that followed, setbacks in international politics led to a certain amount of anti-American and anti-Japanese sentiment. People began to reexamine what they had at home and the Native Soil Movement was initiated. Artists began to shift the focus of their works from anti-communism and China-centered themes to the people and their everyday stories that were taking place in Taiwan, their native soil. Starting from fine arts and literature, the newfound regard for local culture expanded to pop music, movies and other fields. Meanwhile, the government also started to develop Taiwan’s unique cultural characteristics. The Executive Yuan set up the Council for Cultural Affairs in 1981 as the nation’s highest institution for the planning and oversight of Taiwan’s cultural establishments.
Key to Multiculturalism
While the Native Soil Movement was often regarded as one of the most significant factors in the birth of “Taiwan-centered” culture, the lifting of martial law in 1987 proved to be the key that facilitated a multi-cultural Taiwan. The liberalized mass media, while serving as a conduit for an influx of foreign cultures, provided plenty of space for local “minorities”—indigenous peoples, Hakka and early immigrants from Fujian province—to give voice to their own cultural identities that had long been suppressed during the martial law era. Taiwan studies—research into the history, society, art, literature and all other aspects of local culture—became a noted field of enquiry. Government recognition of Taiwan’s diverse voices led to the establishment of the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1996 and the Council for Hakka Affairs in 2001.
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The Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement initiated by the ROC focused on the preservation of traditional Chineseculture such as Peking opera. (File Photo)
The end of martial law also opened the door for cross-strait cultural exchanges. Although progress slowed from 2000 to 2008 under the Democratic Progressive Party, which adopted a policy of de-Sinicization, exchanges have intensified since the KMT regained power in early 2008 and reopened cross-strait talks. In September 2010, ROC Cultural Affairs Minister Emile C.J. Sheng and mainland Chinese Minister of Culture Cai Wu—the highest officials of cultural affairs from both sides—met at the 2010 Cross-Taiwan Strait Cultural Forum held in Taipei. “Politics, no matter how strong they are, will eventually disappear, but culture will be handed down from generation to generation,” Sheng said at the forum. “The purpose of cross-strait cultural exchanges is to let the people on both sides of the strait better understand and respect each other, and only by conducting exchanges with an open heart can we renew the great Chinese civilization,” he said.
Chairman of the National Cultural Association and former ROC Premier Liu Chao-shiuan says mainland China should promote a Chinese cultural renaissance and handle cross-Taiwan Strait issues with benevolence if it wants to be a great world power. In a speech delivered at the Presidential Office in December 2010, Liu quoted British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, who suggested that the only human civilizations that could save the world in the 21st century were the Chinese civilization based on Confucianism and those following the tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.
Toynbee’s prediction, however, would never be realized unless mainland China made a great contribution to global cultural development, the former premier said. “It would not be able to command the same stature or influence as Britain in the 19th century and America in the 20th century if it failed to contribute greatly to human civilization and culture,” Liu said. “Taiwan is an immigrant society with inclusive and innovative cultural development. It can use those assets to help shape new rules of the game for the 21st century and play the role of vanguard and catalyst in the pursuit of a Chinese cultural renaissance.”
By definition, “culture” can be as broad as the totality of socially transmitted beliefs, arts and all other products of human work and thought. The interesting thing is that the big picture can often be glimpsed from the small details of daily life. In Taiwan, for example, local people’s changing dietary habits are directly related to the broader cultural changes that have taken place here.
Fujian-style dishes first arrived several hundred years ago, brought by early immigrants to Taiwan. Meals were later influenced by the Japanese during their occupation of the island. Japanese-style slices of raw fish known as sashimi and a dipping sauce made of ketchup, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sugar used to spice up seafood, for example, are still commonly found on today’s dining tables.
All the Cooks of China
When the Nationalist government arrived, people from every province of China brought their cooking skills with them. They imported dumplings and steamed bread, for example, and other foods made with wheat flour, which for thousands of years has been the staple in China north of the Yangtze River. Rice played a corresponding role for those from areas in southern China. In the beginning, however, “mainland” restaurants mostly served the palates of high-ranking Nationalist officials, as their prices were beyond the reach of the average Taiwanese in what was predominantly a poor and simple agricultural society.
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Cultural exchanges have increased as cross-strait tensions have eased. Taiwan’s Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, for example, has toured mainland China many times since 1993. (File Photo)
In the mid 1980s, Western-style fast food arrived as Taiwan’s economy started to boom and more people began to eat out as well as to travel abroad. Not everything caught on with locals to quite the same extent though, with McDonald’s and KFC doing well, while other chains, including Hardee’s and Wendy’s, were failing to make much of a dent in the market and eventually quitting.
In the meantime, while “mainland” and other cuisines were gradually being adjusted to satisfy local palates, Taiwanese cuisine was becoming more and more popular in its own right. In the past decade or so, many of these “native-soil” dishes have even made their way to national banquets. And as cross-strait relations have changed, many of Taiwan’s food and beverage operators have set up businesses in mainland China.
Thus to some degree, these changes in diet during the past century reflect the ROC’s cultural development. Taiwan is a hybrid of Chinese, Japanese and Western cuisines and cultures brought together partly by political and economic changes. Both are inclusive yet unique, with the benefit that everyone is sure to find something they enjoy.
