Background knowledge for subsequent research

During the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan went through a series policies of implemented for “industrialization”, “education” and “institutionalization”. This established a social structure with mixed Japanese and Western elements and social embeddedness. This system subsequently was brought into contact with Han-style ethnic culture from mainland China when the Kuomintang government later came, leading to the particular characteristics of Taiwanese culture in the present.

Taiwan transitioned from the Qing Dynasty to Japan, with those in power confronting the differences of Han ethnic culture, traditional culture. Although the Meiji Restoration later led to Western values and perspectives, new Japanese social values were different. Furthermore, after the Meiji Restoration,²²⁶ Japan’s national power grew, leading Japan to change from a “periphery” in Asia to a “core”

in which Western civilization was transmitted outwards. Japan expanded from its home territory at the end of the 19th century, colonizing Korea and Taiwan with an essential difference from the economic plunder of western countries through colonization.

Japan ruled Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea as colonial territories, but in looking at the essential contents of its administrative aims, one will discover that although this involved substantive territorial expansion, at the same time, through colonization and the cultural assimilation of nationality construction, this was implementing a

“nationalizing colonialism,” or what may be termed “colonial nation-building.”²²⁷ In analyzing the developmental network of Taiwanese society under Japanese control with this analytic perspective in mind, then, on notes that Taiwan and Japan shared Confucian-philosophical influence, Chinese pictographic characters for writing, and other shared cultural characteristics. However, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan became a rich and powerful country that put its national strength into the lessons of holding office, leading Japan and Taiwan, as ruler and the ruled, to have a complicated collaborative and also conflictive relationship.

226 In 1868, Emperor Meiji released the "Charter Oath", which politically replaced the original feudal system with the separation of the emperor system with a threefold division of powers, promoted the country's modernization and tax reform in the economy, and formed a new bourgeoisie and the working class in society. It replaced the original feudal lords, the gentry and the imperial merchant relations.

227 Wu Hao-ren, Zhimindi de fa xuezhe: "Xiandai" leyuan de manyou zhe qunxiang, (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2017), Guided Reading.

Although up to the present, many generations of researchers have worked hard in digging through Japanese official records, conducting documentation of interviews, fieldwork, and using secondhand materials, this has demonstrated that Taiwan under conditions of Japanese control moved gradually from the feudal politico-economic relations of the period of Qing rule towards an industrial relationship led by the ruling regime. In other words, the embedded social relations of Taiwanese society began to be constructed on several levels, which had the following characteristics:

1. An administrative system was established across all of Taiwan, establishing relations between citizens and the nation. Although the Qing dynasty had declared that all of Taiwan was its territory, it was not until Japanese rule that there was actual political rule by a regime which encompassed all of Taiwan.

This rulership at the same time established and also compressed the original social relationship between the “government” and the “people”. That is, the ruling regime was no longer just a fuzzy and imaginary impression, but substantively existed, was close enough to everyday life in district offices, and was embodied in a bureaucratic system.

2. Industrialization brought electrification and a communication network to Taiwan, leading to concrete connections developed between the north to south and east to west of Taiwan. Electrification brought about the necessary power source for industrialization, also leading social life towards becoming civilized and open-minded. As described in many works of Taiwanese literature, with electric lights, electric fans, radios, and theaters, and other equipment entering into the lives of everyday people, industrialization broke away from the constraints of nature, and work at night or enjoyment at night became part of everyday life.

Apart from speeding up the reactions of bureaucratic systems, and promoting the strengthening of the social relation between “ruler” and “ruled”, on the other hand, industrialization allowed for more control of manufacturing locations and suitable adjustments in response changes in the market. Both of these are important factors for the establishment of a new social model, and of course they expand to form a new social mosaic.

3. The construction of highways and roads, not entirely with the aim of military use, but also for use by commerce and for material transportation. In the process of construction and maintenance of roads, forced labor replaced taxes in initial efforts, but this was followed by the establishment of a modern tax system. The new modern tax system was built then expanded, establishing direct social relations and between the “nation” and “the people.” Compared to the Qing dynasty, the greatest difference was that the tax that people paid to the country was paid through the landlord or through ties with merchants. During the Japanese period, scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants were more strictly regulated as a population and occupation surveys and various tax systems were expanded. This kind of direct social relations led to the consolidation of direct social relationships.

4. Agricultural reform was carried out with the government taking the lead, introducing scientific management methods, placing great importance on field investigations and statistical information, changing the practices of Han culture in which data and scientific research was neglected. Moreover, mobilizing agricultural promotion organizations and agricultural education raised the quality of labor.

Close to ten years of official information in the operations and surveys conducted by the Taiwan governor-general’s office demonstrated that Taiwan had advanced to a very meticulous stage, according to the research and oral interviews conducted by many scholars. While Japanese rule was very strict, with regards to science, planning, and keeping to the prescribed order, this method of conducting things was enthusiastically discussed and believed in. In the process of being ruled, to some degree this was a key cultural influence, changing something Han culture lacked in. For ruling regimes were not just being obeyed as a formality, there also came to be identification with Western-style Japanese culture so that this could enter into Taiwanese social traditions.

5. For exported goods, outside of industrial products, cultural and printed imports expressed the desire for knowledge of Taiwan. The military system of the governor-general office, as well as the Japanese-style tradition of “not admitting defeat”, along with the bureaucracy, police, and educational system, strengthened the colonial system in Taiwan, and in addition, inculcated

“endurance” as the colonial character of ruled society.

In addition to the original Han cultural tradition of education as a means to take up government posts, with Japanese tradition entering the national education system, this led competition and not bloodline to become the standard for advancing in society. All these factors have caused Taiwanese society to be enthusiastic about educational investment in future generations, from the top of society to the bottom.

Past historical research into education in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period has shown that the governor-general’s office was discriminatory in the education system in Taiwan. However, this ignores that limitations were imposed on localities in Taiwan, with quotas for both Taiwanese and Japanese.

Likewise, if Taiwanese went to Japan to pursue education, there would be no such restrictions. As a result, as seen in official documentation from Japanese official documents, there was the phenomenon that Taiwanese going to Japan to pursue education increased substantially during colonization, extending to humanities subjects such as law, philosophy, and sociology that were discouraged within Taiwan’s education system.

6. In the educational system and the industrial system these appeared unions, guilds and educational associations, with Taiwanese society already beginning to have labor-capital relations. Such associations, in conducting labor-capital consultations, sought to establish dialogue regarding various social issues. This demonstrates that the ruling regime did not solely decide labor relations and

this information expresses that labor, capital, and the government had a triangular relationship during the Japanese colonial period, not so different than current industrial relations in the modern nation.

As a result, an important social factor of this research which must be noted is that, during the Japanese colonial period, workers developed independent perspectives; this is unquestionable. Comparing Japan, the first modern, nationwide union was formed in Japan in 1897,²²⁸ but up to the present, Taiwanese workers’ remain separated into the unions of various industries or union federations in terms of organization, without any nationwide union. Apart from individual labor-capital consultations, there is no evidence to prove that there was more active political participation or paths used actively for policy suggestions by such groups.

Nonetheless, in examining the difference in circumstances between Taiwan and Japan, in Taiwan as a colony, there were collective agreements, labor-capital consultations, and the implementation of policy suggestion channels. Outside of forming groups to pursue their interests, the Taiwan governor-general as a colonial governing force was comparatively accepting of the existence and results of labor-capital consultation, as different as sky and earth from the fear of labor and tight restrictions on organized labor by the later Kuomintang government.

7. The “Foot Binding Liberation Movement” released women from the education of traditional Han culture in which women were confined to the house. This allowed women to further become a new force in the workforce. In Han culture, the majority of women stayed in the home, and economically they usually depended on men. The view that “men and women should be separate” and emphasis on keeping to “the female way” was far higher than in Japanese culture.

As a result, through implementing the foot binding release movement and female education, the Japanese colonial government was able to transform the objective conditions facing women in Han culture. This kind of large social value led to changes regarding sexual issues, of course, with the governor-general’s office pursuing the aim of raising the productive capacity of Taiwan by incorporating women into the workforce. After the start of the Pacific War, women replaced the men who lacking in the workforce.

Yet what must be stated is that without the aforementioned “Foot Binding Liberation Movement” and female education by the Japanese, after the Kuomintang government came to Taiwan, confronting the gender traditions of Han culture, one suspects that women would have continued to have a more restrictive situation in Taiwan.

8. National education, technical and vocational training, and higher education systems were established, with education no longer being the special privilege

228 This was founded by Katayama Sho, Takanoya Taro, and others in 1897, and was dissolved in 1902.

of the nobility. The so-called “four classes” of ancient China,²²⁹ scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants were made equal, with slaves and serfs becoming “free people.” Moreover, through education, individuals had opportunities to rise in society.

But the Han cultural notion of “Only to be a scholar is best of all”, using education to get out of deep-rooted circumstances, led to an increasing number of educated people having increased competition. This kind of excessive competition confirmed the social embeddedness of education, and has led Taiwanese society up to now to have the prejudice that “one test can decide one’s life”, especially since parents at the bottom of society are unwilling for the next generation to have no way to stand out from the crowd, and this emphasis on education becomes all the more important.

9. The rice oppositional movement reflected that Taiwanese farming already separated itself from self-sufficiency and the economic system had entirely industrialized. Various factors in the system, including the governor-general’s office, Japanese local assemblies, Taiwanese farmers, Japanese farmers, Taiwanese social movements, Japanese social movements, Taiwanese grain manufacturers, Japanese grain manufacturers, all in this economic system, looked for closer embeddedness in the social system with their collaborators.

10. The land reform movement made certain the privatization of land, not like how during the feudal times, “All land belonged to the emperor.” That in the feudal time one could not obtain land also represented that land could not be arbitrarily taken by others.

Agricultural workers were of course willing to do their best to increase the productivity of the land during the feudal period. Yet it is also key to note that with the notion in Han culture that, “To have land is to have fortune,” this began the crazed trend towards land ownership in Taiwan. Under this social atmosphere, workers spent much energy on accumulating landed capital, pushing land prices in Taiwan up. The strong desire of the members of the lower classes with low salaries for land continued to grow, because only by depending on the buying and selling of land could they get rich overnight, or experience a reversal of their fortunes.

11. Life insurance —as a form of financial commodity —appeared in Taiwan, and reached a level of people taking out life insurance in which for every three families, there was one life insurance policy. This demonstrates that the contract system in Taiwan had already become a universalized notion in Taiwan, and that there was a certain surplus to the amount of savings a family had apart from what was just needed for survival. There also would have to be the objective condition of that there was some understanding of the life of workers,

229 The classical “four classes” refers to scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchant classes. The "Equality of the Four Classes" was an important part of social reform during the Meiji Restoration. Since then, legally speaking, there has been no untouchable class, and no slaves.

that this would lead to the commercial activity of life insurance become a means of providing assurances for one’s life and the welfare of one’s family.

12. The social welfare system was primarily taken care of by the people during the Qing dynasty, not yet becoming a responsibility that the ruling regime would have to take up. After Japan took control of Taiwan, the government initially took control of the social welfare system and its institutionalization in Taiwan, but later on, but did not assert control to the level of laws later passed in Japan to make social welfare the responsibility of the state and to further integrate social welfare, which were not passed in Taiwan.

As a result, social welfare remained stuck with the feudal era’s view that social welfare should be conducted using the surplus of society. This allowed for the

“inhibition” of values in a way later taken up by the Kuomintang government, leading to policies directed at “heavy economy, light social welfare.” This has only changed with the political transition of power in modern Taiwan. But as stated before, with excessive notions regarding competition, for there is still much social contempt for groups that need to apply for social welfare, including the view that these are people without education that simply multiply, with the view that

“without money, one should give birth,” and looking down on those who “without education, still wanted to give birth.”

As such, undertaking an analysis of social elements from the standpoint of SKoG²³⁰ regarding social embeddedness,²³¹ we can come to the following summary.

Because of sociocultural factors during the Japanese colonial period, this led Taiwan to quickly transition to the embryonic stage of a modern industrial society after the Qing dynasty. From this emerged the “nation” and “people,” the “system of national taxation,” “labor-capital relations”, the “power of female workers,”

“private property history,” “international movements,” and other social factors.

Each social element had its individuality but gradually came to have an interactive yet independent existence, as “enterprise owner,” “landowner,” “bureaucrat,”

“opinion leader,” “worker,” “expert,” “religious group,” and various historical events expressing strongly social embeddedness. Social embeddedness is also shown in the rise of Taiwan identity. The petition movement for the establishment of a Taiwanese parliament (1921-1934),²³² the Taiwanese Cultural Association (1922-1932),²³³ the Taiwanese People’s Party (1928-1931),²³⁴ the Taiwan Local Self-Government League (1930-1937),²³⁵ the Taiwan’s Farmer’s Assembly (1926-1933),²³⁶ the Taiwanese Workers’ General Union (1928-1931),²³⁷ the Taiwanese

230 Preface, "Shehui danyuan jiegou tu," p. 73.

231 Preface, Laodong guanxi zhong de zhanlue xing qunti tu, p. 79.

232 See Zhou Wan-yao, Ri ju shidai de taiwan yihui shezhi qingyuan yundong (Independence Evening Post, 1989)

https://share.readmoo.com/book/533262.

233 See Ye Rongzhong, Ri ju xia taiwan zhengzhi shehui yundong shi (Chenxing chuban, 2000)

234 Ibid.

235 Ibid.

236 Ibid.

237 Yo Hekisen, Ri ju shidai taiwan ren fankang shi, (Dao xiang chuban she, 1996)

Labor Interim Council (1928-1928),²³⁸ the Taiwanese Communist Party (1929-1931),²³⁹ and the outbreak of other social movements were important events in political participation during this period.

3.6 The social character of china under republican governance during the