英文摘要 |
This article is a study of the 'imagined geography' of Taiwan's alpine, plains, and island frontiers in two dozen films featuring indigenous peoples. I make the following observations and arguments: Many pre-1987 alpine films were produced by government studios, which tried to tum the indigenous high mountain frontier into a Chinese national space. The plains frontier did not feature in cultural production until the 1980s, in two films made by mainlanders in response to the rise of Taiwanese nationalism. Taiwan's island frontier (Orchid Island) has been consistently exoticized to promote tourism. Yet all three frontiers have undergone a process of representational Sinicization and Indigenization, with a corresponding shift in the agency of transformation, from center to frontier. The shift takes place around the lifting of Martial Law in 1987. In pre-1987 films, Chinese settlers transform frontier landscapes and indigenous peoples, while in post-1987 films, indigenous frontier landscapes transform Chinese (or Taiwanese) visitors, making them start to reflect on their way of life. |