Activity Reports

Activity Reports

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The 1st Young Scholars Workshop "An Agrarian Movement in Colonial Taiwan: by focusing on the protest against the irrigation system at Jia-nan-da-zhen"

The 1st Young Scholars Workshop
"An Agrarian Movement in Colonial Taiwan: by focusing on the protest against the irrigation system at Jia-nan-da-zhen"
hosted by International Center for Japanese Studies

Presenter: Misato Shimizu (PhD Candidate, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies "TUFS")
Chair: NOMOTO, Kyoko (Professor, TUFS)
Discussant: MATSUMOTO, Takenori (Professor, Tokyo University)
Date: Saturday, 17 July 2010, 14:00-
Venue: Medium Conference Room, 2F Administration offices, TUFS

〔presentation summary〕
While Jiannandazhen was constructed during Japanese imperialism as a modern irrigation system, it was sustained through reducing the autonomy of traditional Taiwanese irrigation practices. Farmers responded by opposing the irrigation management organization, not paying the water tax, and starting a petition movement. What we see in this process of conflict between farmers and the authorities is a difference in concepts of water use rights. In the decision-making process of the protest movement against the construction, not only the relationship between Japanese as colonizers and the farmers, but also among the colonized Taiwan famers, authorities, and landowners were mutually affected each other. In conclusion, based on the analysis of the presentation, it can be said that the protest transformed a hierarchical space of colonized and colonizer to a space of equal negotiation.

Photo gallery ( Slide Show )

Poster ( PDF )

 Japanese page