ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how three national narratives Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese were played out in Taiwan. It begins with a discussion of the establishment of the Director-General's Museum by the Japanese, and considers colonial governance, modernization, and the museum's role in promoting citizenship. This will be followed by an examination of the period of Kuomintang Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, looking at the National Palace Museum and the Director-General's Museum which was then renamed the Taiwan Provincial Museum. Discussion focuses on how Chinese political ideology was imposed in these two museums during the Cold War period and how the Taiwanese people were taught to be Chinese through the state's cultural apparatus. The original National Museum of History ceased to predominantly tell the Chinese story in the late 1990s, when it became a venue for popular and blockbuster exhibitions. The chapter looks at Taiwan after the political liberation, when Taiwan's own history and identity emerged after decades of political and military suppression.