Contested urban landscapes of nationalism: the case of Taipei

Abstract

We discuss how Chinese Nationalist political leaders usurped the urban landscape of Taipei to promote the concept of a Chinese nation and national identity in an effort to legitimize their right to political power. The result was the creation of a cityscape which symbolizes the belongingness of the inhabitants of Taiwan to the Chinese nation and which celebrates Chinese Nationalist heroes. In the recent past, oppositional political parties and social movements have challenged these inscriptions and reappropriated the urban landscape to contest both the legitimacy of Nationalist political power and the concept of the Chinese nation promoted by Nationalists. Contestations involved the promotion of an alternative Taiwanese nation and national identity, as well as the questioning by aboriginal people of the Taiwanese nation as a unitary category.