臺灣慰安婦劇場：論同黨劇團《燃燒的蝴蝶》之內褶交織與戲史轉譯

Comfort Women Theatre in Taiwan: On Drama-History Translation and Folded Intersectionality of The Party Theatre Group’s Burning Butterfly

從九○年代開始的臺灣慰安婦對日求償運動，始終未能獲得日本政府正式承認或完整賠償。冷戰遺緒與當前熱戰之中，隨著所知最後一位前臺籍慰安婦受難者於2023年過世，有關議題越陷艱難，更體現歷史創傷、戰爭論述、性別與暴力系統緊密共構的迫切人權命題。近三十年來，婦女救援基金會等組織為受難者動員求償運動，更為之提供照護及情感輔導支援，也激發以慰安婦為主題的文化與藝術創作多元發展。其中，有關慰安婦議題的臺灣劇場日漸成蹊，然而，慰安婦作為戰爭之性暴力受難者，往往處於一種難以觸碰或討論的「內褶交織」狀態，目前有關慰安婦劇場的研究評論卻往往聚焦於歷史考證足夠與否，以及史料轉譯適當與否的辯論框架中，忽略慰安婦劇場的雙層悖論本質，亦即歷史的不可絕對再現性，以及舞臺再現企圖與受難者不願再現之間的矛盾性。鑑此，本文爬梳近年以慰安婦為主題之臺灣劇場與表演藝術，分析美學策略與社會運動之間的互動模式與後續效果，並聚焦同黨劇團於2022年推出之《燃燒的蝴蝶》。此劇呈現臺籍慰安婦受難故事，一方面藉由抽象偶戲展演歷史悲劇，寓言慰安婦受難經驗之凹陷塌藏；另一方面則透過寫實表演陳述現今創痛，透過敘事版本的塌陷，反向揭露被暴力同質化的從屬與裸命，由此指向戲史轉譯所締造的「共享的無法共享性」。

The movement for Taiwan’s comfort women to seek redress from Japan, which began in the 1990s, has persistently failed to secure formal acknowledgment or comprehensive compensation from the Japanese government. In the context of Cold War legacies and current geopolitical tensions, the passing of the last known surviving Taiwanese comfort woman in 2023 highlights the increasing difficulty of addressing the issue. This event underscores the urgent human rights concerns intricately linked with historical traumas, war narratives, and systems of gendered violence. Over the past three decades, organizations such as Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation have mobilized campaigns for survivors, providing them with care and emotional counseling. These efforts have also stimulated the diverse development of cultural and artistic creations centered on the theme of comfort women. In this context, Taiwanese theater addressing the issue of comfort women has gradually gained attention. However, as victims of sexual violence during wartime, comfort women often occupy a state of what this essay calls as“folded intersectionality,”rendering their experiences difficult to approach or discuss. Current research and critiques of comfort women theater remain confined within debates over the sufficiency of historical documentation and the appropriateness of historical translation. This narrow focus neglects the inherent double paradox of comfort women theatre—namely, the impossibility of absolute historical representation and the contradiction between the desire to stage representation and the survivors’reluctance to be represented. In light of this, this essay examines theater and performing arts centered on the theme of comfort women in Taiwan, analyzing the interaction between aesthetic strategies and social movements and their subsequent impacts, with a special focus on The Party Theatre’s Burning Butterfly (2022). This production portrays the tragic stories of Taiwanese comfort women, employing two distinct yet interconnected approaches. On one hand, it utilizes abstract puppet theater to represent the historical tragedy, allegorizing the unrepresentability of the comfort women’s traumatic experiences. On the other hand, it incorporates realistic performances to articulate present trauma, exposing through the collapse of narrative frameworks the violent homogenization of the subaltern and bare life. In doing so, the play gestures toward the“shared unshareability”forged through the theatrical translation of history.