Read more
Taiwan's quest for identity and international recognition has been the most important and fiercely contested issue for nearly half century, both nationally and internationally. Imagining Taiwan is the first in-depth and comprehensive study, published in English, which critically explores the pivotal role played by the visual arts in Taiwan's identity discourse. Drawing on 25 years of research, Sophie McIntyre analyses the ways in which identity narratives have been imagined, interpreted and transmitted, locally and globally, through the production, selection, display and reception of Taiwan art.
This book focuses on the post-martial law era, a transformative period when democratisation gave rise to a heightened sense of Taiwanese consciousness, and a growing awareness of Taiwan's place in the world. Artists, curators, art critics and scholars in Taiwan actively engaged in identity issues in unique, and often subversive ways. The author reveals how, with the turn of the new millennium, identity discourses in the visual arts shifted, from a Taiwan-centred narrative into a transnational vision embracing local, regional and global perspectives.
Imagining Taiwan brings together primary and archival sources, and nearly 200 images, many published for the first time. It is an essential reference for specialists and students in art, curatorship, museums, and Taiwan and China studies, and it will also appeal to those seeking a greater understanding of the wider region.
List of contents
List of Figures
Note on Transliteration
Acknowlegments
Introduction
Part 1 Exhibiting Taiwan art and the Politics of Museums, Identity and Recognition (1987-2000)
1 Rethinking History, Identity and Nation in Exhibitions of Taiwan Art
2 Reaching Out to Asia and the World: Regionalism and Internationalism in the (Re)presentation of Taiwan Art
Part 2 Artist Case Studies
3 Deconstructing the Nation - Mei Dean-E
4 Narrating the Nation - Yang Mao-lin
5 Whose Identity and Whose Nation? - Wu Mali
6 The Nation De-mythologised - Yao Jui-chung
Part 3 Globalisation and the Rise of China in the World: New Frameworks for Exhibiting Art from Taiwan (2000-10)
7 Decentring the Nation: Reconfi guring the Local as Global in the Taipei and Venice Biennials
8 Reorienting Taiwan: China's Global Ascent and the 'Art' of Cross-Strait Exchange
Conclusion
Endnotes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Sophie McIntyre is a scholar and curator of art from the Asia-Pacific, with expertise in art from Greater China. She received her PhD from the Australian National University (2013) and has lectured and held fellowships in universities in Australia, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. She has also curated more than 30 exhibitions, several of which featured art from Taiwan. Her texts have been widely published in books, journals, and catalogues in Australia and internationally.
Report
This study cracks open wide a new perception of Taiwan and its artistic contribution to the public. [McIntyre] has capably documented and explained her original discovery of Taiwan's international entrance to the world of art in a publication which measures 7"x 10", weighs three pounds, consists of 300 pages with 200 well-chosen illustrations of art work, [..] enhanced by a fine writing style ...
Richard Kagan in Critical Asian Studies February 15, 2019
Sophie McIntyre's Imaging Taiwan: The Role of Art in Taiwan's Quest for Identity (1987-2010) is a useful and authoritative source. [...] good, solid, and comprehensive. [This book] effectively and wonderfully brings a 'pragmatic' imagination for us to reconsider the relationship between art and politics in contemporary art in Taiwan.
Hsin-tien Liao in International Journal of Taiwan Studies 2.2 ( Sept 2019) pp. 377-395
