top of page

陳美蓁 Mei-Chen Chen
Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA, Ph.D student

題目:From Guoju to Kua-á-hì: Seventy Years of Cultural Diplomacy in Taiwan

 

Peking opera was recognized as national opera (guoju) in Taiwan by Nationalist government in the 1950s. Since the 2000s, cultural policy overtly focused on Taiwanese culture with the rise of “Taiwanese consciousness” and the change of ruling party. In 2009, Taiwanese cultural forms such as kua-á-hì is designated as Taiwan’s intangible cultural heritage. This paper examines the relationships between intangible cultural heritage, nationalism, and cultural diplomacy, particularly in the case of Taiwan. Heritage is a crucial marker of national identity, and is inevitably implicated in nation-state politics. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett argues that heritage is a mode of cultural production that created through metacultural operations, and Tim Winter further states that heritage plays an important role in cultural diplomacy and soft power strategies. Taiwan is a non-United Nations country and is at particular pains to assert its culture and political identity vis-à-vis the giant and frequently threatening neighbor to its north (China). Since the end of Japanese colonialization, Taiwan has experienced successive stages of constructing Chinese versus Taiwanese identities, which has also affected cultural policies and diplomatic strategies. This paper aims to answer two questions: How do Taiwanese and Chinese identities influence heritage-making and cultural diplomacy? How does Taiwan consider heritage as soft power and use it for cultural exchange with mainland China and other countries? In answering these questions, this paper explores contemporary scholarship on nationalism and cultural diplomacy and examines the concept of heritage in dialogue with this scholarship. It then examines nationalist ideologies in the history of Taiwan, and their impact on heritage diplomatic strategies. Finally, this research on Taiwan’s unique political and cultural contexts helps us to test assumptions developed from the experience of nations linked to the dominant UNESCO-driven paradigm of heritage conservation, and will assist us in refining thinking in nationalism and heritage diplomacy.

bottom of page