媒體科技與現代性－－回溯三○年代臺灣的廣播經驗與都會生活

Media Technology and Modernity: An Investigation of Radio Usage and Urban Life in the 1930s Colonial Taiwan

本文由小說《命運難違》所描寫的場景切入，參照日治時期報章文獻，回顧三○年代前期臺灣都會生活中使用廣播的經驗，描繪廣播與其他傳播科技所共構的媒體網絡，藉此理解當時臺灣社會接觸新傳播科技、消費主義與現代性的經驗。本文將三○年代臺灣的大眾媒體經驗，置於二次戰間日本受到全球化影響，大眾文化興起且大幅改變生活方式的背景下討論。廣播在日本熱切擁抱現代性的社會氣氛中被介紹至臺灣，雖帶有殖民政府規訓人民的意圖，但也成為民眾重要的資訊與娛樂來源，將精準時間的邏輯融入日常，影響都市的生活韻律，並把臺灣帶入全球化與資本主義的運作體系。

This article explores the everyday usage of radio in the 1930s colonial Taiwan. Situating in the narrations of urban life provided by ‘Inviolable Destiny’, the article aims to depict the complicated networks constituted by radio and other media technologies, and to investigate the inter-relationships between new media technologies, consumerism and modernity. Being influenced by globalization, Japan witnessed huge transformations of lifestyles and the rise of mass media and popular culture during the interwar period. Radio was introduced to Taiwan by its ruler with great enthusiasm toward modernity. Although it was the colonizer’s intention to discipline the colonized by means of radio, the medium turned into an important source of information and entertainment for lay people. The radio also privatized synchronization and made punctuality an inseparable part of modern life. It affected the rhythms of cities and brought Taiwan into the complex systems of capitalism and globalization.