從抑鬱悲情到俗擱有力：臺灣庶民文化的轉變

From Sadness to Vulgar but Powerful: The Transformation of Taiwanese Folk Culture

本文探討臺灣庶民文化轉變，指出清季因階級分化而形成的文化階序，在日本殖民及戰後威權體制下產生「族裔階級化」；文化的精粗差異循著族裔界線而區分，導致閩南、客家和原住民文化壓抑隱匿，展現抑鬱悲情。然而，具有情感切身性的庶民文化迎合底層需求而保有經濟合理性，並隨著1980年代消費社會崛起而活絡，呈現熱鬧、艷麗、雜拼、俗擱有力等特質，卻被賦予庸俗化污名。1990年代以後，隨著本土化與民主化進展，庶民文化逐漸逆轉品味階序而取得正當性，甚至具備政治正確性，並回饋於經濟合理性而擴展了市場。然而，庶民文化雖逐漸破除族裔階級化，卻呈現「階級族裔化」，可能與底層情感切身性脫節而耗損了其抵抗意涵。

This article explores the transformation of the folk culture in Taiwan. In contrast to the gradual development of Taiwanese cultural hierarchy in Qing Dynasty, “the stratification of ethnicity” came to dominate the institution during the Japanese colonial period and the post-war authoritative period. The distinction of the culture at that time, whether assumed refined or vulgar, was made in compliance with the ethnic boundary. The Min Nan, Hakka, and aboriginal culture were hence suppressed and often expressed sadness. The folk culture however still retained its economic legitimacy rooted in the subaltern’s emotional familiarity, and gradually flourished with the emergence of consumer society after the 1980s. It is often materialized as objects or images which are flamboyant, glittering, vulgar but powerful, and being stigmatized by the cultural elite. From the1990s onwards, the folk culture begins to obtain cultural legitimacy since the taste hierarchy is overturned facing the localization and democratization of the Taiwanese society. The folk culture is even dubbed with political righteousness as it is appropriated by the political system and helps expand the market of folk culture, which answers its role in the economic rationality. Nevertheless, as the ethnic stratification of the folk culture begins to dissolve, a new tendency of “the ethnicitization of class” also comes into being. The seemingly popular folk culture actually disconnects from the emotional familiarity of the lower class, and therefore loses its subversive implication.