History of the Kuomintang cultural policy
Encyclopedia
During the early postwar period (1945–1960) the Kuomintang
(KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) suppressed localism
and barred Taiwanese
from cosmopolitan life except in the spheres of science and technology. The authoritarian KMT dominated public cultural space and Chinese nationalist
networks became a part of cultural institutions, leaving little resource for cultural autonomy to grow.
Under the early KMT, Taiwan was realigned from a Japan
ese imperial center to a Chinese nationalist center, under the influence of KMT and American
geo-political interests. Although American cultural activities were modest, they played a significant role in Taiwan’s developing cultural scene. The KMT claimed a loss of morale led to “losing the Mainland” and thus the state issued a series of ideological reforms aimed to "retake the mainland"
, which became the major state cultural program or the time, The immediate preoccupation with losing China diverted long term investment in the humanities and social sciences. On another level, the state’s main objective was to “sinicize” the Taiwanese by teaching them Mandarin Chinese and Nationalist ideology through compulsory primary education
.
By the late 1940s the KMT had eliminated dissent for its cultural policies. When Taiwanese had resumed the cultural activities, which were outlawed by the Japanese in 1937, the Nationalist attitude was that Taiwanese had been Japanese “slaves” and would therefore have to complete a period of moral and ideological tutelage before they could enjoy their full rights as citizens of the Republic of China. The February 28 Incident destroyed Taiwan’s urban elite and the arrival of the mainlander elite ensured Nationalist domination of urban cultural centers.
In 1953, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
issued his first major opinion on culture to complete Sun Yat-sen
’s Three Principles of the People
, which included prescribing Nationalist curriculum for education, building facilities for intellectual and physical recreation and the major state cultural program of promoting anti-communist propaganda. In regard to Taiwanese cultural life
, the major thrust was for “universalization” of education in Mandarin. Despite the hard-line nationalist control over culture, the Soviet advances in technology led to a new Nationalist focus on building closer cooperation with American universities and developing engineering programs (Wilson 1970). The American presence in Taiwan also encouraged Taiwanese to resume some politically benign cultural activities, which was expressed in a flourishing Taiwanese language
media market.
Between the beginning of the 1960s and mid-1970s Taiwanese cultural life was in a period of gradual transition between the immediate postwar ideological goal of “retaking the mainland” and the social realities of Taiwan’s development. The social-sciences and the humanities struggled to gain acceptance as preferable forms of cosmopolitanism, while new cultural markets implored the state the promote positive cultural programs with an eye on increased space for localism. Despite the United States
’ gradual lowering of its political commitment to Taiwan, academic and technological exchange flourished. The restrictive atmosphere in Taiwan resulted in a brain drain as many students failed to return after receiving their American degrees. This also created networks of information exchange back to Taiwan. The result was an increase in “westernized” modernism followed by a Nationalist instigated traditionalist backlash. The effect of this backlash on many older “Mainlanders” sparked the Chinese cultural renaissance movement, which sought to exemplify the selected cultural traits of China in contrast to the “west” and moreover, answer the communist Cultural Revolution
.
Taiwan’s deteriorating international position led to an increase in state fuelled nationalism, which was vented against Japan
in a dispute over the Diaoyutai islets. Despite the nationalist posturing, the tremors of cultural liberalization were beginning to shake Taiwan’s foundations as intellectuals, artists and professionals began filtering back to Taiwan. Taiwan’s decreasing prominence in the battle to win the Cold War
also forced the KMT to refrain from the hard-line tactics it had used to extinguish dissent, and as a result, the government’s ability to limit liberal intellectuals from the cultural sphere was severely inhibited.
By the latter half of Chiang Ching-kuo
’s rule, the state shifted to a more positive role in facilitating cultural life. Taiwan’s economic development pushed Taiwan into the global market and American-Taiwanese cooperation shifted from a political to an economic partnership. The KMT started moving from an ideological and coercive cultural policy of terror and assassination to the more mundane works of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
, a foundation dedicated to providing monetary support for academic and cultural research.
Despite originally trying to limit cosmopolitanism, by the late 1980’s the KMT promoted it in an effort to diffuse the growing “localization” movement (Lin 2002:219-227). The availability of international culture provided open space for cultural discourse and criticism. In another surprising move to combat localism, the KMT reversed decades of policy against “contact with the “mainland” and allowed Taiwanese tourists to visit with the goal to confirm the KMT maxims, “Taiwanese are ethnically Chinese” and “Communism is bad.” Nevertheless, localism in Taiwan became an accepted discourse on Taiwan. Press censorship continued through much of the 70’s and 80’s as banned books and bookstores were shut down by Garrison Command. The strict nationalized cultural policies of the KMT became the target of the “tang wai” political opposition, which favored and often equally rigid cultural policy to counter the KMT. The political opposition promoted an, often ethnocentric, cultural policy, which sought to mobilize ethnic Taiwanese against the KMT’s ruling ethnic minority and sought to revive and accentuate their own version of Taiwanese culture.
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) suppressed localism
Localism (politics)
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
and barred Taiwanese
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
from cosmopolitan life except in the spheres of science and technology. The authoritarian KMT dominated public cultural space and Chinese nationalist
Chinese nationalist
Chinese nationalist can refer to:* Chinese nationalism* Kuomintang - Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan....
networks became a part of cultural institutions, leaving little resource for cultural autonomy to grow.
Under the early KMT, Taiwan was realigned from a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese imperial center to a Chinese nationalist center, under the influence of KMT and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
geo-political interests. Although American cultural activities were modest, they played a significant role in Taiwan’s developing cultural scene. The KMT claimed a loss of morale led to “losing the Mainland” and thus the state issued a series of ideological reforms aimed to "retake the mainland"
Project National Glory
Project National Glory or Project Guoguang was a military attempt by the Kuomintang-led Republic of China to try to recapture mainland China held by the People's Republic of China . The missions began in 1965...
, which became the major state cultural program or the time, The immediate preoccupation with losing China diverted long term investment in the humanities and social sciences. On another level, the state’s main objective was to “sinicize” the Taiwanese by teaching them Mandarin Chinese and Nationalist ideology through compulsory primary education
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
.
By the late 1940s the KMT had eliminated dissent for its cultural policies. When Taiwanese had resumed the cultural activities, which were outlawed by the Japanese in 1937, the Nationalist attitude was that Taiwanese had been Japanese “slaves” and would therefore have to complete a period of moral and ideological tutelage before they could enjoy their full rights as citizens of the Republic of China. The February 28 Incident destroyed Taiwan’s urban elite and the arrival of the mainlander elite ensured Nationalist domination of urban cultural centers.
In 1953, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
issued his first major opinion on culture to complete Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
’s Three Principles of the People
Three Principles of the People
The Three Principles of the People, also translated as Three People's Principles, or collectively San-min Doctrine, is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation...
, which included prescribing Nationalist curriculum for education, building facilities for intellectual and physical recreation and the major state cultural program of promoting anti-communist propaganda. In regard to Taiwanese cultural life
Culture of Taiwan
The culture of Taiwan is a blend of Confucianist Han Chinese, Japanese, European, American, global, local, and Taiwanese aborigines cultures, which are often perceived in both traditional and modern understandings...
, the major thrust was for “universalization” of education in Mandarin. Despite the hard-line nationalist control over culture, the Soviet advances in technology led to a new Nationalist focus on building closer cooperation with American universities and developing engineering programs (Wilson 1970). The American presence in Taiwan also encouraged Taiwanese to resume some politically benign cultural activities, which was expressed in a flourishing Taiwanese language
Taiwanese language
Taiwanese language may refer to* Most commonly** Taiwanese Hokkien, spoken by about 70% of the population of Taiwan* Also** One of the Languages of Taiwan** One of the indigenous Formosan languages spoken in Taiwan...
media market.
Between the beginning of the 1960s and mid-1970s Taiwanese cultural life was in a period of gradual transition between the immediate postwar ideological goal of “retaking the mainland” and the social realities of Taiwan’s development. The social-sciences and the humanities struggled to gain acceptance as preferable forms of cosmopolitanism, while new cultural markets implored the state the promote positive cultural programs with an eye on increased space for localism. Despite the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
’ gradual lowering of its political commitment to Taiwan, academic and technological exchange flourished. The restrictive atmosphere in Taiwan resulted in a brain drain as many students failed to return after receiving their American degrees. This also created networks of information exchange back to Taiwan. The result was an increase in “westernized” modernism followed by a Nationalist instigated traditionalist backlash. The effect of this backlash on many older “Mainlanders” sparked the Chinese cultural renaissance movement, which sought to exemplify the selected cultural traits of China in contrast to the “west” and moreover, answer the communist Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Taiwan’s deteriorating international position led to an increase in state fuelled nationalism, which was vented against Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in a dispute over the Diaoyutai islets. Despite the nationalist posturing, the tremors of cultural liberalization were beginning to shake Taiwan’s foundations as intellectuals, artists and professionals began filtering back to Taiwan. Taiwan’s decreasing prominence in the battle to win the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
also forced the KMT to refrain from the hard-line tactics it had used to extinguish dissent, and as a result, the government’s ability to limit liberal intellectuals from the cultural sphere was severely inhibited.
By the latter half of Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo , Kuomintang politician and leader, was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China...
’s rule, the state shifted to a more positive role in facilitating cultural life. Taiwan’s economic development pushed Taiwan into the global market and American-Taiwanese cooperation shifted from a political to an economic partnership. The KMT started moving from an ideological and coercive cultural policy of terror and assassination to the more mundane works of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange is a private, non-profit organisation located in Taipei, Taiwan, that provides support for research grants on Chinese studies in the humanities and social sciences at overseas institutions. It was founded in 1989 and named...
, a foundation dedicated to providing monetary support for academic and cultural research.
Despite originally trying to limit cosmopolitanism, by the late 1980’s the KMT promoted it in an effort to diffuse the growing “localization” movement (Lin 2002:219-227). The availability of international culture provided open space for cultural discourse and criticism. In another surprising move to combat localism, the KMT reversed decades of policy against “contact with the “mainland” and allowed Taiwanese tourists to visit with the goal to confirm the KMT maxims, “Taiwanese are ethnically Chinese” and “Communism is bad.” Nevertheless, localism in Taiwan became an accepted discourse on Taiwan. Press censorship continued through much of the 70’s and 80’s as banned books and bookstores were shut down by Garrison Command. The strict nationalized cultural policies of the KMT became the target of the “tang wai” political opposition, which favored and often equally rigid cultural policy to counter the KMT. The political opposition promoted an, often ethnocentric, cultural policy, which sought to mobilize ethnic Taiwanese against the KMT’s ruling ethnic minority and sought to revive and accentuate their own version of Taiwanese culture.