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Discuss the relationship between place, identity and displacement through the case of mainlander forced migrants of 1949 in Taiwan.

Author/ Chi Chu

‘The embodiment of the homelessness refers to the circumstances of the refugees away from 'home'”, Warner (1994, p.48) ever states. This was also the experience for 'mainlander forced migrants' in 1949. 1937 to 1960 was the most chaotic period in modern Chinese history. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Civil War and the Korean War, a large number of people were forced to migrate between China and Taiwan. After the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) retreated to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, mainland China has been governed by the People's Republic of China (PRC). At the time, about 2 million 'mainlander forced migrants'[1] migrated to Taiwan and became one of the 'rootless groups' in history. Using this case, this essay discusses the relationship between place, identity and displacement through analysing post-war literature. First, the essay will consider how migrants shape nostalgia and the 'sense of places' through 'a taste of home' or 'ritual' to establish their identity and sense of belonging to hometown. Second, it aims to discuss how mainlander forced migrants have confronted the double ambivalence and transformation of identity while/after 'returning home'. Finally, this essay argues that the relationship between place, identity and displacement is a dynamic process. For mainlander forced migrants who moved to Taiwan after 1949, their identity is mainly influenced by the political situation between China and Taiwan and memory shaped by forced migrant communities.

The sustenance of displacement and nostalgia have been the collective experiences of mainlander migrants who left their hometown (mainland China) in 1949 but could never truly return to their hometown physically and psychologically. One of the reasons is the dilemma of the political situation between China and Taiwan. Because the new regime, the PRC, has governed mainland China since 1949, these displaced people from the mainland have experienced a kind of political displacement. Meanwhile, not only was the international refugee system still in the process of being established at that time, but the protection or settlement policies for these forced migrants was also incomplete (Nedostup, 2010). So far, the displacement from 1945 to 1949 caused by the Chinese Civil War is still a major talking point. Hence, the mainlander forced migrants, who have been difficult to catalogue in the relief system or following refugee conventions, have been put on hold by the international community and are framed up in the political conflicts between China and Taiwan (Ibid). Looking at history, Lary (2010) shows that, for many Chinese people, the wars meant endless separation, which was a sudden incidents without any signs, and it just happened naturally. In a documentary about the life of mainlander forced migrants in Taiwan, Hebei Taipei (2016), the protagonist, Li, mentions that all the roads he had travelled were not ones he would have chosen himself, but were forced on him by the external situation: 'it was fate that chose me.' This is indicative of the experience of mainlander forced migrants. For them, Taiwan is not their home: their real hometown is in mainland China (Taiwan People News, 2015). As Turton (1996) states, “one assumption of 'displacement' indicates ideally people 'belong' to a certain place and gain the identity from their association with a particular place fundamentally or naturally” (Cited in Kiberab, 1999, p.405). However, returning to the hometown has become a utopia for mainlander forced migrants. In turn, nostalgia and the cohesion of the forced migrant community can be observed in post-war literature, through which migrants attempted to reconstruct the memories of their hometown during their displacement. Yu (2011[1974]), part of the first generation of mainlander forced migrants, describes the attachment to hometown in his poem, Nostalgia:

It can be observed from Yu's text that displacement is a lack of existence, perhaps more fundamental than the lack of shelter (Cresswell, 2004). It means that mainland migrants were forced to leave their hometowns and lost the sustenance of their hometowns in the process. Also, through Yu’s expressions, 'here' and 'there', the hometown is depicted as far away. Moreover, through expressions of nostalgia, mainland China is undoubtedly a place of inner connection and a sense of belonging (Augé, 2017, p. 60). Yu's poem also responds to Kibreab's (1999) statement that “the propensity of many societies, including formerly 'cohesive' ones, to define themselves based on their ethnic, national or spatial origin, or religion”. This indicates that in Yu's texts it can be seen that the description of his ethnic origin through the relationship between mother/ mainland China (on the other side) and him/ Taiwan (on this side). Also, Relph (1976) notes ‘ the roots are significant to provide people a point of prospect and the attachment of a particular place in terms of spiritual and psychological sides. For human beings, it is an essential need to be attached and have deep ties to places. Hence, in the nostalgia of mainlander forced migrants, spatial origin and the roots represent place attachment psychologically. Besides, ‘place attachment is often defined as 'an affective bond or link between people and specific places'’ (Hidalgo & Hernández 2001; Cited in Windsong, 2010, p. 206). For instance, Tang (1979, p. 2), a food writer and first generation member of the mainland diaspora, describes how 'the taste of food provokes my nostalgia of hometown. It would bewonderful if all mainlander forced migrants could return to the mainland and try a taste of hometown.' This implies that a taste of home represents the place-based, physical attachment of hometown. Additionally, over time, for mainlander forced migrants who have not been able to return to their hometowns, it has been necessary to restore and re-establish a set of cultural customs belonging to their hometown to maintain their roots (where they are from) and release the nostalgia (Sun, 2010, p. 48). For them, nostalgia and the spiritual substance of hometown are pin on a particular object or practice, such as a taste of home and ritual. These objects/practices represent the reappearance of 'place', which can be imagined and even reconstruct the memory of hometown. As a consequence, these objects/practices encapsulate a sense of place and Les Lieux de Memoire (Nora). As Tuan (1975;1990) states, the place becomes a symbol of spirit to express emotions, not just to indicate location or function. The thought of home transcends the boundaries of residence and includes places that are often described as 'sense of place' with a sense of belonging (May, 2000, p. 748). As mentioned above, in a displacement context, the place provides spiritual and memorial sustenance and is not just a physical place but can also be a sense of place presented in any object.

The memories and identities of hometown formed by displaced mainlanders take shape through practices such as food literature or rituals in the alien land. In the process, a desire to return to their hometown is created. For instance, as Chung (1959) mentions in My Native Land, 'the blood of the native villagers must be flown to the original hometown to be stopped.' This means that the nostalgia of mainlander forced migrants will stop only when they make their return. Due to the political situation between China and Taiwan, mainlander forced migrants were not allowed to visit relatives in China and 'return to their hometowns' until 1987. Nevertheless, the experience of returning to their hometown has also become a critical point to deny the imagination of mainland China shaped in these four decades by mainlander forced migrants. During this time, the mainlander forced migrants became truly psychologically 'rootless' and lost their identity. Identity has the function of identification and connection for individuals. It distinguishes the difference between insider and outsider, and connection meets the sense of belonging between individuals and communities. In the case of mainlander forced migrants, when they returned to their hometowns they discovered that profound changes had occurred in the past few decades. This made their mental connections to the landscape disappear (Lin, 2010, p. 304). As Chu (1992) mentions in In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound, ‘the moment when I was able to return to my hometown, I found that for my relatives who remained I was a Taiwan compatriot and a Taiwanese; However, when going back to the Island (Taiwan), where I have lived for over four decades, people refer to me as a member of the mainlander forced migrants from the other province of mainland China… Thus, I have a deep feeling that I am like the displaced bat, which cannot be classified into bird or vertebrate’. Chu (2002[1997], p. 213) also states the mistake about her ancestral history in The Ancient Capital. For Chu, people blame forced migrants for retreating to Taiwan in 1949 and abandoning ancestral tombs and the reunion with family. Another example is the documentary, How High is the Mountain, which reveals the relationships within individual encounters of mainlander forced migrants and history after 1949. In one scene, a son asks, 'How did you feel when you went back to your hometown yesterday?'. His father replies, 'I do not know anyone ... all have changed'. 'Will you want to go back again?', the son asks. Father shakes his head and says, 'it is not like my hometown at all. My original house is gone.' In the cases mentioned above, the disconnection from hometown is a response to the difference of sense of belonging, as well as the disparity between ‘self’ (forced migrant) and 'others' (hometown). Furthermore, mainland migrants sink into a dilemma because they belong to neither their original hometown nor Taiwan.

Accordingly, whether the ‘identity’ would truly transform after a while when the original hometown is no longer how it appears in memory. For mainlander forced migrants, the identity of 'outsider' signifies that nowhere can be attached and status of displacement—not only outside Taiwan but also outside the hometown in mainland China (Mei, 2006, p. 12). Even though displacement is still constant, psychologically, these mainlander forced migrants have recognised they have lived for most of their lives in Taiwan and have recognised Taiwan. However, the identity of mainlander forced migrants has been continuously split by the political situation between China and Taiwan. The identity issue has continued to ferment (Yang, 2010, p. 64). The first reason for the identity issue is that the governments of ROC and PRC have emphasised the 'homogeneity' of identity in the post-war era in order to establish the coherence of opposite political ideology between China and Taiwan, respectively. Consequently, this long-term opposing position has created a difference in consciousness/ideology/memory between mainlander forced migrants and their families/hometowns. Secondly, because the Taiwanese political environment has changed drastically since 1949, mainlander forced migrants have been marginalised in Taiwanese society. The atmosphere of society had changed from Chinese consciousness to local Taiwanese consciousness (Lin, 2010, p. 313; Ko, 2010, p. 81). The reason was a series of political conflicts that took place in Taiwan after 1949, such as the 228 Incident, which accelerated the differentiation between mainlander forced migrants and local Taiwanese . Therefore, for mainlander forced migrants, they are neither Taiwanese nor Chinese because of the difficulties in the processes of assimilation and acculturation. ‘They are just a wandering soul that has no place to go/ belongs.’ (Lin 2019). The situation faced by mainlander forced migrants corresponds to the concept of 'double ambivalence' proposed by Weisberger (1992) in Marginality and Its Directions. This idea indicates the anxiety of migrants facing a marginal situation in an alien land. This anxiety stems from the difficulty striking a balance between the culture of the alien land/new nation-state and the hometown/native nation-state. Neither can migrants rule out the influences created by their native culture. Consequently, migrants are in a marginal position, not in-between, but unable to adapt to each side, resulting in the double-ambivalence. They can only return to their native hometown geographically but cannot truly go home psychologically. This indicates that mainlander forced migrants have confronted the dilemma in the sense of belonging/identification and might they retreat to the margins of society.

#migration #mainland china #taiwan #1949 #forced migrant

Discuss the role of Palestinian cuisine in identity and collective memory formation for Palestinians

Author/ Chi Chu

Food constitutes ‘a highly condensed social fact’ and ‘a marvellously plastic kind of collective representation’ (Appadurai, 1981, p. 494). This research project begins to discuss the relationship between food, collective memory and identity for Palestinian diasporas overseas through the concept of daily food and commensality Food has come to represent the juxtaposition of rights in daily life: strategic (the system of the nation-state, such as large-scale suppression) and tactical (people’s guerrilla resistance) (de Certeau, 1984). Historical Palestine has experienced many ethnic settlements and nations and is deeply affected by political and social divisions, conflict and violence. The food culture has become not only the core of family, the nation-state, and identity but also the medium of political ideology. It is also the thrust of living together and erasing borders. Therefore, this ethnography will present perspectives on the Palestinian cuisine of Palestinian diasporas with regards to individual identity and collective memories through the use of interviews, participant observation, and detailed discussion.

#migration #food #identity

Discussion of xenomania in East Asia and racialised migrants (‘foreign bridges’) in Taiwan

Author/ Chi Chu

The phenomenon of xenomania, such as the western dream, is prevalent in Asian. The slang, ‘the foreign moon is much rounder’, is deeply rooted in East Asian (EA) societies. Accordingly, the ‘white’ not only becomes the general standard, but also causes a presentation of self-denial of EA values. Therefore, this reaction paper through perspectives from Houria Bouteldja, Ben Ratskoff, Amira Ekwakil and other scholars will discuss the influence of ‘white patriarchy’ in EA and the racialisation of ‘foreign bride’ migrants from Southeast Asia (SEA). It will feature examples from EA and Taiwan concerning xenomania in cross-cultural romance (CCR) between local women and western men, and xenophobia surrounding transnational marriages between local men and SEA female migrants.

#gendering #migration #asia

追著，追尋遙遠的歸屬

自由與民主在生命中是理所當然。讀著課本中邁向民主進程的過程，息息相關卻如此遙遠，自由與民主給予我們意識說話的權力。而在秋意到來的日子，翻著幾週觀影後的隨記，思考並回憶著蒙古友人分享蒙古國邁入民主化的歷史，想著，於是翻起一張張旅行時的照片。

Photo by Hsiao-Chi Chu

#Belonging #Democracy #Freedom #Mongolia #Middle East #travelwriting #travel

Discuss how ‘performative turn’ affects the curatorial practice and spectatorship of audiences in contemporary visual art exhibitions.

Author/ Chi Chu

In history, museums have played an authoritative and specific role/ framework in the process of the concretisation of artworks. Curatorial practices usually place exhibitions within the ‘white cube’ to highlight artworks or objects. This practice blends neutrality, objectivity, eternity, and sacredness and claims to be rational and transcendent while giving the artworks mysterious value and meanings. Nevertheless, since the post-modern period, critical museology has begun to discuss the concept of museums—'the space of interaction between the audiences, collections and exhibition space' (Crespo, 2006, p. 232) and the challenge to museums' power. As a result, the approach to curatorial practices in museums has become more diverse and inclusive. Also, the art field has been affected. Therefore, contemporary art institutions have been concerned about the performative turn, and the discussions of invisible stretchable boundaries existing in the functions of art museums. The 'guidelines' of exhibition space, curatorial practice, or artworks tend to have a transformation, gradually changed into different interactive or interpretation approaches. Therefore, this essay briefly discusses the transformation of art in history. Through two curatorial practice cases, this essay attempts to show how the 'performative turn' influences curatorial practice in exhibition spaces and the spectatorship of audiences.

Firstly, in terms of an overview of recent art history, since the 1960s and 1970s, Conceptual Art, Performance Art, Body Art, Fluxus and Happening Art have captured the performative actions and other related elements of daily life as a framework for art. This wave created conversations and fierce collisions over artworks, the artist's practising body, curatorial practices and the mechanized production of art museums. The performative turn of the contemporary art exhibition can be understood by considering performative art, which originated from the response to machinery in the industrial era. The 'body' (of artists or audience members) and interaction (inter-subjectivity) became the focus. From Bourriaud’s (1998) statements on relationship aesthetics, artists, through their artwork and the art process (in the making), attempt to reshape space and the spectatorship of audiences, and reverse the boundaries of public/private and daily/non-daily. Artists' artworks have challenged the sacredness of exhibition space and provoke museum visitors to recognise the importance of their existence to artworks. Examples include Christoph Schlingensie’s A Church of Fear vs the Alien Within (figure 1), the 2003 Venice Biennale, or a retrospective exhibition The Artist is Present (figure 2) for Marina Abramovic held by MoMA in 2010. Moreover, as Schechner (1988) states, the 'Fan' model (Figure 5) of performance spans the domain of traditional drama theory and adopts an inclusive definition of 'performance'. It means that the performance can include rituals/ceremonies, witchcraft, the outbreak and resolution of crises, daily life, gameplay, the art production process and ritualization (Schechner 1988). From these perspectives and cases, it can be seen that the performative turn in curatorial practices and artworks emphasises 'process', 'time' and 'ephemerality' (Li, 2018; Bishop, 2018). However, there is a critical concern to be resolved regarding how performance art is exhibited for a long period at museums. The common practice is to display the remnants/objects even if people are concerned that the live nature of performance art cannot be represented. However, it is useful precisely because it prompts recognition of the fact that the performance is no longer present and highlights the most critical feature of performance: ephemerality. Therefore, the remnants and the disappearance of performance art are mutually symbiotic (Li, 2018).

Secondly, as mentioned above, this transformation in art form has also influenced curatorial practices, use of exhibition space and spectatorship in art institutions. Hence, 'curatorial practices' have become an essential mechanism for understanding and analysing contemporary art, which has attempted to construct a situational, heterogeneous spatial space/form. The performative turn in curatorial practices and art exhibitions ought to be traced back to the exhibition Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form–words – concepts – processes – situation – information (figure 3), curated by Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) at Kunstmuseum Bern in 1968. According to an interview with Jens Hoffmann (MOCAS, 2013), this exhibition was the first to expose the concept in exhibitions and claim a new art spectacle and a new exhibition form from collective exhibitions at the time explicitly (Biryukova, 2017). For Szeemann, this museum was like a lab rather than a place of memories because Kunstmuseum Bern did not have any permanent collections at that time. Therefore, the experimental exhibition transformed into a place of art spectacle and the starting point for exploring the nature of art. A new curatorial and practising connection was created between artworks, artists, creative processes, exhibition space and curators, one which reconstructed the concept of 'acceptance of contemporary art/absence of curatorial mechanism Moreover, the 'attitudes' proposed by Szeemann refer to the representation of the artist's mental space, which is a process and artistic expression of the artist’s behaviours. It means that the making process of creating artworks is more critical than before. The artist and the artwork construct a symbiotic development relationship in the process of making. Also, the materials of artworks return to a free state. Due to the 'attitude' concept, the exhibition space becomes a practising space to visualise the artist's mental space and the creative process of artworks. For instance, Wrapped Kunsthalle by Bulgarian artists Christo and Jeanne Claude, wrapped up the museum building in polyethene and other materials (figure 3). During the process, artists have created conversations and shaped relations of intersubjectivity between museum space (building), artworks, and themselves.

Another presentation of the performative turn is live art happening in museum spaces, which can transform performance/behaviours/events with long-term ephemerality that extends the validity of works, and also transform the space-time perception of exhibition spaces. According to the concepts of live art (LADA, 2020; Joshua Sofaer, 2020), live art as a cultural strategy is different from the traditional contexts, which 'creates space for experimental and experiential attempts'. In live art, the notion of 'presence' is essential. Therefore, it can be encountered the actual moment of artworks in the making because either artist would do artworks in front of participants or participants would immerse in a created situation made by artists. An example of this is the exhibition Masingkiay by Taiwanese indigenous director Fangas Nayaw at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE) in 2017 (figures 6 & 7). The concept of the art production is from a drama to a 'live art' exhibition. Hence, Nayaw aimed to create an indigenous gathering place in the museum where performers were hosts inviting audience members (guests) to engage in the social scene of the indigenous peoples (figure 8). The result was a participatory exhibition, as well as an example of the art process in the making. Additionally, Nayaw established the space as a home using a universal symbol rather than traditional indigenous totems or decorations. To break the stereotypes of indigenous cultures and traditions, this live art exhibition allowed participants to experience the diversity of contemporary indigenous cultures/customs and younger generations' transformation through the exchange and sharing of daily dialogue and affections rather than traditional indigenous dances. According to Bishop (2018), the dance exhibition is regarded as a model form of the new 'grey zone', and its performance form has surpassed the 'black box' of the theatre and the 'white cube' of the museum. The curatorial practise of Masingkiay re-discuss space transformation (function) from the theatre (performance) to the museum (exhibition) and how to create individual experiences for audiences (participants). In the process of the live art exhibition, artists, artworks, and audiences dissolve the time quadrant in the museum space, creating the new spatial sensory experience and open interactive participation. However, there are several questions mentioned in the curatorial process. The curatorial practice ought to concern about various perspectives, such as where the boundaries of the performative turn in this process are, when participants are performers can such a performance be regarded as either theatre or exhibition, how the curatorial perspective of performing art transform the art museum, and how live art drive the museum to form a social field.

#art #performative turn #exhibition #live exhibition #curatorial practice #contemporary art

The sadness of Southeast Asian migrant workers in Asia

Author/ Chi Chu

It is difficult for migrant workers, especially illegal workers, to obtain a better life (Utopia) because of social values and inadequate migrant policy. This reaction paper considers how the restriction of individual sovereignty by biopolitics imprisons migrant workers’ bodies and features perspectives from Rodriguez, Graham, Puar and other scholars. The significant observation is that ‘the system of colonial racial differentiation established a modern hierarchical system through historical identities discerned by a new global structure of the control of labour associated with specific social roles’ (Rodriguez 2018:24). In some developed countries and regions of Asia, such as Taiwan, Japan, China and Hong Kong, as a result of racism and colonisation, Southeast Asian (SEA) migrant workers have faced discrimination and exploitation. Hence, this reaction paper will outline the phenomenon through Taiwan cases.

The interaction effect of gender and racism by global capitalism generates migrant policy as ‘a biopolitical tool of governance’(Ibid:21). It means that binary relationships, such as between insiders (citizens) and outsiders (migrants), are embedded within ‘social relations shaped by the long-term implications of colonial power’ (Ibid:35). This results in the classification of ethnic groups in the social structure. This situation has been observed in Taiwan. Numerous SEA migrants, including illegal migrants, have sought a better life in Taiwan because of higher wages. Migrants respond to the demand for workers prepared to undertake dirty, dangerous and difficult labour (the ‘3Ds’). Nevertheless, concern over the influx of SEA workers has grown in Taiwanese society because these workers have become one of the leading groups in the social structure. One reason is that migrant workers replace local citizens who are not willing to work for lower wages. As a consequence, the labour structure is redistributed. Another reason is that due to ‘moral panic’ (Hall et al. 1978, cited in Rodriguez 2018:17–18) caused by the media, the stereotype of impoverished and undeveloped SEA countries is exacerbated and ingrained in public perceptions and local society. Hence, SEA migrants are classified as second-class and labelled as inferior and uncivilized. The situation is similar to the one described in Resisting Borders: A Conversation on the Daily Struggles of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon ‘there is no one listening to or helping migrant workers. Those workers labelled as the poor group experience discriminations and social exclusion’ (Gemma, Rose, Mala, Meriam, and Julia 2016). Thus it tends to be that the racial and class boundaries under social ideology enhance the discrimination of SEA migrants in Taiwan as well. Migrants’ bodies and actions are imprisoned by social consciousness and, as Fassin (2001:4) states using Foucauldian terminology, ‘the body has become the site of inscription for the politics of immigration — biopolitics of otherness’.

Furthermore, the phenomenon of exploitation and physical maltreatment is on the rise, especially in the Taiwanese fishing industry, not only because of social values and stereotypes about SEA migrants but also because of Taiwanese migrant policy — ‘Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members’ (FA, 2019). Taiwan, as the biggest distant water vessels economy in Asia, has an oligopoly of the whole trade from catching yield to the employment of fishery workers. Also, it is one of the leading countries in the trafficking of illegal SEA migrants. In 2018, the documentary Exploitation and Lawlessness: The Dark Side of Taiwan’s Fishing Fleet, filmed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), not only revealed that Taiwanese distant water vessels plunder the ocean’s resources but denounced the trafficking of illegal SEA migrants in the Pacific Ocean. The documentary also highlighted the fact that issues of maltreatment and exploitation are hidden in sophisticated transnational illegal trades. There are two factors that cause dehumanisation. Firstly, the systematic classification of fishery workers is the result of racism and colonisation. One agent (cited in The Reporter in 2018) said, ‘we buy cheap and obedient fishery workers from the margins of the world, such as Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand’. Fishery workers are classified by ethnic group and purchasing price. Also, according to the captains’ training book produced by the Fisheries Agency (FA), fishery workers are classified by nationality and ethnic characteristics (Ibid). Some description in the training book portrays Indonesians as less able to adapt to hard work compared to Vietnamese. These classifications not only enhance racism through subjective evaluations of different ethnic groups but also present southern countries (southeast Asian /fishery workers /poor) as colonised and oppressed by northern countries (Taiwan /captain /wealthy). These inequalities discipline fishery workers’ bodies.

#migration #taiwan #southeastasia #fisheries

Unresolved Veterans’ Nostalgia — Anti-communist Martyrs of the Korean War

Author / Chi Chu

Due to the influence of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, David Der-Wei Wang, there has been an attempt to understand how the traumatic experiences of the turmoil of war in China. The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Chinese Civil War (1945–1950) and the Korean War (1950–1953) were the most turbulent and chaotic in Chinese history. They caused large-scale family relocation, abandonment of homes, unexpected sacrifices and trauma for many people. On 23 January 1954, more than 14,000 prisoners of war (POWs), who were members of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and had engaged in the Korean War, decided to be repatriated to Taiwan (ROC) instead of China (PROC) and were subsequently called ‘anti-communist martyrs’ after the war. They were marked with various ‘anti-communist’ tattoos on their bodies (Picture 1) and KMT emblems as part of swearing allegiance to the Republic of China (ROC) and their determination to pursue freedom (Huang 2016). In order to ensure the identity of POWs, their lives have been dominated by political propaganda and post-traumatic stress. Therefore, this essay will discuss, firstly, how the bodies of POWs from the Korean War became a boundary of home. Secondly, the essay will evaluate how trauma has affected their behaviour by using several individual cases and the Hebei Taipei documentary.

As Hartman (2008:2) states, the archive is a ‘death sentence, a tomb, a display of the violated body, an inventory of property, a medical treatise on gonorrhoea, a few lines about a whore’s life, an asterisk in the grand narrative of history’. Therefore, in the official historical narrative, it is necessary to think repeatedly about the complex text of the anti-communist martyrs of the Korean War. There are several records and books relating to the narratives of the anti-communist martyrs, such as Chou (2005) History of the Korean War and Anti-communist Martyrs, Halberstam (2008) The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, Li (2015) Hebei Taipei. After the end of the Korean War, some of the Chinese POWs, who used to be KMT troops, were later forced to join the People’s Liberation Army and others became loyal to the Communist Party. After the POWs arrived in Taiwan, most of them became involved in the army and built cross-roads as workers in Taiwan. Even though they are the anti-communist symbols, they are not trusted by the government and are closely monitored due to their sensitive political status. Their strong local accents and individual military identity made it difficult for them to integrate into Taiwanese society, and their hometowns were isolated on the opposite side of Taiwan’s ideology. This history is influenced by political ideology, causing individual anti-communist martyrs to feel isolated, and as a consequence, they start to seek identity to rely on. At the junction of death and separation, scars and imprints are not only imprinted on the body but also inscribed in the mentality. It means that the imprint inscribed on the body expresses another symbol of social culture via the medium of memory, presenting the experiences and reaction of oneself inside and outside. Since 1988, anti-communist martyrs have been allowed to visit relatives in China. However, these anti-communist martyrs, which symbolise the ‘anti-communist’, seem to be incompatible with visiting China because of the intangible opposite political positions. Some martyrs are concerned that the tattoos may attract political persecution from the CCP regime. Therefore, before returning to their hometowns, they must cover tattoos or undergo skin suture operations, especially to hide those words that are abusive and critical of the CCP, as well as the national flag of the ROC, which must be hidden. Hence, by the times, the dichotomy ideologies of ‘the enemies are incompatible’ seems to end. The political signs profound in the body, whether with consent or not, must also be changed, from faded to clear vague, like their embarrassing identity as ‘anti-communist martyrs’ (Chang 2018).

#migration #essay #korean war #martyrs #veterans #nostalgia

Borders have become invisible borders, situated everywhere and nowhere.

Author/ Chi Chu

Under globalisation, which is one presentation of modernity, it seems natural to have free movement of people without borders. In this era, the transformation of transportation, technologies and cultures has enhanced people’s ability to think beyond borders and to cross them frequently (Urry 2007). Also, globalisation has created a transnational network between different nation-states and ethnic groups. However, reflecting on the concepts of contemporary nation-states and ethnic groups through modernity, ‘crossover’ is a crucial challenge under the hegemony and biopower of borders. The observation is that ‘the process of migration racialises Other and reconstructs colonisation’ (Rodriguez 2018) as insiders and outsiders are defined. The critical dilemma is ‘the visible and invisible border’, which presents how the hegemony and power of nation-states and ethnic groups not only enhances the distinction or disparity in territory and races, but also embodies the invisible borders affecting peoples’ bodies, movements and rights — a dehumanised treatment. Hence, this writing will attempt to argue ‘borders have become invisible borders, situated everywhere and nowhere’. The first part will discuss the definition of the border. Secondly, through several cases in Israel-Palestine and Europe, it will re-examine how the migration policies and biopower (Foucault,1978) of nation-states or supranational unions create visible and invisible borders in terms of movements, residence and citizenships. As a result, those policies lead to the imprison of migrants’ bodies and the denial of their sovereignty and create ‘particularistic conceptions’ (Dvir, et al. 2019) in society. Before addressing the conclusion, it also will discuss ‘border thinking’, as a transposition method, to reflect the possibility of decoloniality.