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This paper investigates the role of Taiwan's museums in reflecting and shaping collective identity amid political changes.

January 1, 2010Open Access

History, Identity, and the Politics of Taiwan’s Museums

Key Points

This paper investigates the role of Taiwan's museums in reflecting and shaping collective identity amid political changes.
Analysis of museum practices during the Martial Law era and subsequent democratization in Taiwan.
Examination of changes in museum narratives under the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regimes.
Assessment of museum roles in identity discourse amid Taiwan's societal shifts.
Museums initially served KMT propaganda to promote a unified 'Republic of China' narrative.
Post-1980s democratization led to museums emphasizing Taiwan's unique historical and cultural identity.
The KMT's renewed power in 2008 saw a push to align museums' narratives closer to pro-China sentiments, though changes in society complicated this influence.

Abstract

Museums in Taiwan—as elsewhere—have always been embroiled in politicised debates over collective identity, both reflecting and helping to shape the contours of identity discourse. During the four decades of the Martial Law era, the Kuomintang (KMT) regime used museums as vehicles for its campaigns to nurture patriotic citizens of a “Republic of China” encompassing the entire Chinese mainland. However, with the onset of democratisation from the late 1980s, museums increasingly reflected and reinforced a strengthening consensus over Taiwan’s historical and cultural distinctiveness, while also mirroring the considerable pluralism of popular identity consciousness. This trend was accentuated under the regime of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after 2000, but 2008 witnessed the return to power of a KMT determined to establish warmer ties with China. This paper examines the extent to which the new regime’s more accommodative approach to China has extended into the realm of museums, while considering whether developments within the sector, and within broader Taiwanese society, mean that museums are no longer quite the pliable tools of official cultural policy that they once were.

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