英文摘要 |
Suffering from the impact of the WTO, the grain merchants of Chihshang Township strove to find a new model for rice purchasing and selling through geographical indication. However, early Taiwanese trademark laws forbade the use of location name for profit. To overcome this regulation, the Chihshang grain merchants united as one group to use the logo of Chihshang Township to represent their legal status, but due to the poor recognition of the Chihshang Township logo in the market, this plan failed. Later, due to the WTO including the protection of intellectual property rights as one important provision, the grain merchants ultimately benefited from Taiwan's entrance and were able to register the term Chihshang for geographical indication. Once public property, the location name gained commodity-like characteristics, and different powers eagerly focused on how to distribute the new rights and profits. At the same time, a new governmentality was born after the registration of geographical indication. Although the income of Chihshang peasants increased due to the success of the ''Chihshang brand,'' the basic contradiction of profit distribution between grain merchants and peasants was not resolved. The officer who promoted the geographical indication effectively became the head of the township and actively dealt with the structural problem of distribution within the rice industry. This action re-articulated the peasants` imagination of state effect and helped him acquire the support of most townspeople and become the first person to run unopposed in the 2018 Chihshang township election. |