Politics In The Preservation Of Monuments

This article selects the history of Taiwanese monuments for more than seventy years as a point of observation.As a sub-category of cultural preservation,the historic preservation means that the state or region will retain objects of historical importance or other display situations for the purpose of inheriting history.The monument can be regarded as a cultural production mode and a way of understanding history.Similarly,the basis of individual and collective identity can be found in the monuments.Although the monuments show the connection between modern life and history,the definition and presentation of the monuments cannot be separated from the intervention of the state or the government.The monument thus becomes a vital carrier in the construction of identity.Specific to the Taiwan region of China,as early as during the Japanese colonial period,the colonists paid attention to the educational role of the monuments.Not only did special laws deal with the preservation of monuments,but also the monuments with the history of Japanese rule were designated,Thus the colonial identity construction is realized through the monuments.The history of the preservation of monuments after the recovery of Taiwan is divided into four stages.The first stage is the stage between 1945 to 1949.During this period,Chiang Kai-shek hoped to implicate its nationality through the traditional Chinese factor to Taiwan area,thus realizing the reconstruction of the identity of Chinese nation.At the same time,it should be pointed out that the Kuomintang did not intend to build a brand new nationality based on Taiwan area,but to consolidate its rule,rebuild Chinese nation identity in Taiwan.The second stage starts from 1950s to 1980s.After the Kuomintang regime moved to Taiwan,the Taiwan region was regarded as an area under its effective control.Therefore,they reproduced administrative system once used in Nanjing.This design also profoundly affected the historic preservation,and with the the beginning of Chinese Culture Revival Movement in the 1960s,the local architecture of Taiwan was vigorously restored with the Central Plains building standards,in an attempt to restore Chinese identity.The third stage betweens 1980s to 2000s,under the discussion of Inclusive Taiwan proposed by Chiang Ching-kuo and Building a Great Taiwan by Lee Teng-hui's.Both Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui acknowledge the influence of Chinese culture on Taiwanese architecture,but Lee Teng-hui tries to separate the relationship with Chinese culture.The fourth stage starts from 2000s,the DPP and its followers manipulate ethnic politics on the historic preservation.Nationalists use different discourses at different stages,with corresponding administrative practices,deconstructing,constructing,and strengthening identity through the preservation of monuments.Although there are differences in different periods,we can see that all kinds of cultures were not treated on an equal footing in the every periods,,and even caused the alienation of the national identity construction,which also led to certain confusion among the Taiwanese people in their identification.Through historical combing,we believe that the we should always take the cultural significance of the monument as the first essential,recognize the equality of each group,and respect the culture of the other groups should be the primary principle of cultural preservation.