臺灣史上第一場「小人國」博覽會

The First Grand Exhibition of 'Miniatures' in Taiwan

本文利用拉圖(Bruno Latour) 討論實驗室與實體社會關係所提出的「轉譯」(translation) 概念，觀察1935 年始政四十週年記念博覽會會場中有關科學及工業的展示手法。實驗室將物質重新分解、衡量、重新配置及縮放尺度的方法，在博覽展示活動中亦可得見。在始政四十週年博覽會場中，我們可以看到主辦者將十數萬件的展品分門別類，放置在其所規劃的部品館舍中，並加以評比，此即物質重解、重置與衡量之功；策展者利用各種各樣動態或靜態的模型以演示科學的內容及工業製程或產品，模型的塑造即是一種真實物質在尺度上轉譯的結果。轉譯之後的展場物質，一方面脫離了原有的實境脈絡，使得它可以被策展者重新詮釋，二方面則透過尺度的縮放，使得策展者得以放大其所欲「特寫」的物質特性，縮小抹去其所不欲顯露的細節，使得我們看見了朦朧的科工「成就」，卻難以一窺科學與知識的體系。

This paper applies Bruno Latour’s concept of translation to the grand exhibition held in colonial Taiwan in 1935.The author draws a series of analogies between the uses and arrangements of models in the exhibition and Latourian models of laboratory practices within which objects are dissolved, modified, rescaled, and staged. Once in the exhibition, the views were as if surrounded by miniatures. The purpose of translation was to interest viewers in the message encoded in the exhibition by the colonial government. While the Japanese authorities achieved a partial success, limits on space and resources rendered the translation incomplete. Moreover, though the semiotics of the translation permitted some viewers to grasp the delivered message, viewers from different backgrounds would have had different understandings of the ’inscription.’ A close study of this attempt at translation and of its limited success shows that the exhibition was a field of struggle for seeing and believing.