Improvisations in postcoloniality

Author(s)

Liza Wing Man Kam

Abstract

This article examines the Shinto shrines built in Taiwan during the Japanese colonisation (1895–1945) and their subsequent reappropriations in multiple forms, from the grandest, which were turned into martyrs’ shrines for the Chinese Republican (Kuomintang or KMT) cause after
their retreat to Taiwan in 1949 to others that became different sacred spaces, as well as those that had been left derelict. Through historical and ethnographic analysis of selected case studies, namely the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei, the Taoyuan Martyrs’ Shrine, and the Jiadong Shrine, this article departs from viewing the shrines as mere constructs of the authorities by investigating how contemporary users intervene and improvise in these formerly oppressive spaces. Using the concepts of Edward Soja and Henri Lefebvre as interpretive tools in conjunction with non-binary perspectives drawn from Taoist
philosophical ideas, the article theorises the multi-lectic relationship between history, space, society, and wider agencies by illuminating how the postcolonials have gradually reclaimed the right to interpret the code of the shrines by recognising a mixture of authoritarianism,
arbitrariness, and sacredness. Beyond the binary perceptions of the shrines as either ‘eyesores’ or ‘heritage’, the colonial architecture in the postcolonial context manifests itself as a fulcrum where power and subjectivity shift between authorities and civilians. The transformation
process of these shrines demonstrates that decolonisation is continuous, shared, and bottom-up rather than momentary, controlled, and top-down.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies

Journal

The Journal of Architecture

ISSN

1466-4410

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2025.2555978

Publication date

2025

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

201201 History of architecture, 605008 Cultural heritage, 507021 Urban history, 601022 Contemporary history

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/21c6fbaa-5a14-48be-9317-69b69ed840b7