The College of Cultural Heritage at Taipei National University of the Arts will host the second Brown Bag Forum of the Spring Semester (2025–2026, Semester 2) on April 9 (Thursday) from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. The event will take place at the Cultural Resources Library, 4th Floor, Research Building.
The forum is titled:
“Constructing the Spatial Imagination of Alishan in the 1930s”
The talk will be presented by Po-Liang Chen, PhD student in Cultural Heritage and Art Innovation, and moderated by Chieh-Hung Tseng, Director of the Graduate Institute of Arts Administration and Management.
This study aims to examine how the geographical concept of Alishan was historically constructed. Taking the establishment of the “Niitaka–Alishan National Park” in the 1930s as a critical moment, the research applies Erving Goffman’s framing theory and Robert D. Sack’s concept of territoriality to analyze how multiple narrative frameworks intervened in and shaped the spatial delineation of national policy.
The study investigates contemporary newspapers and magazines, the intentionally curated Alishan Alpine Museum, and official meetings regarding the national park’s establishment. It identifies six interacting and competing frameworks: “civilizing mission,” “resource depletion anxiety,” “tourism transformation,” “scientific rationality,” “representation of the Other,” and “national interpretation.”
The findings suggest that the present-day concept of Alishan is not a naturally formed geographical entity, but rather the result of competing forces among Chiayi City, the Forestry Bureau, and the Japanese colonial government, which integrated heterogeneous spatial perspectives. The study also highlights the presence of “silent” or unarticulated frameworks beyond those explicitly documented in historical records.
The layered interaction of these multiple frameworks not only defined the boundaries of the national park in the 1930s, but also, through their shifting dynamics over time, contributed to the ambiguity and divergence in contemporary understandings of Alishan’s geographical identity.
Everyone is warmly invited to attend.
Contact Person: Rui-Hong Weng PhD Program in Cultural Heritage and Art Innovation (1st Year) Tel: 0919-516-561
