The Image Of "the Island Capital" Taipei Under Japanese Rule (1895-1945): A Human Geographical Study

Oriented by human geographical concepts, this thesis studies the image of the city of Taipei, "the Island Capital", colonial capital of Taiwan under Japanese rule. By reading historical documents compiled by the colonizers and the colonized in this period and narratives of Taipei in literary works, the thesis analyzes the literal representation of this city in these written materials.In addition, it discusses the image of Taipei perceived by both the colonizers and the colonized in the same space/time as well as explicit or implicit meanings of the image.Firstly, this study explains the transformation of urban space in Taipei under the interactive influence of "coloniality" and "modernity" and explores its significance. Secondly, it analyzes the history, human geographical landscape and city image in space both in "the core space/Inner City" dwelled by the colonizer—the Japanese residents and "the marginal space/Dadaocheng and Banka" inhabited by the colonized—the Taiwanese residents.The colonizers reconstructed the physical and living space of Taipei by appropriating European colonialism and "modernity",which shaped a chain of Europe—Japan—Taiwan mode. The "coloniality" and the "modernity" brought about by this consecutive mode intermingled with Taipei's primordial localness, and went through selective identification, disavowal,and "poetic transformation" of the colonized, generating a complex and reflective spatial image of Taipei.The study demonstrates that the image of the city perceived by the colonizers was the combined result of desire for power, ostentation,colonial imperialism, racial superiority and imagination for "exoticism", forming an image of Taipei "under the imperial gaze";as for the colonized, that image was interlaced by longing for and amazement to modern space, alienation of modern city, "poetic resistance", loss of history and localness.Together they weaved a complicated and overlapping image of Taipei.Finally, the study concludes that although the colonizers and the colonized perceived the image of Taipei on the basis of real urban space, their observation and experience of this space blended reality and imagination.