何謂 「東方」？戰後台灣美術批評意識的一個初步考察（1950 - 1960年代）

Abstract

As far as Chinese paintings are concerned, "tradition versus innovation" has always been the basic tone of discussion since the beginning of this century. First of all, this paper will traces back this proposition to its original historic context, and quest the argument brought forth by early republic intellectuals that "Chinese paintings have deteriorated to its most." In my opinion, this remark was made as a result of political needs of the reformists in late Ching dynasty. In spite of the reformists' enthusiasm to follow the Occidental model, advocacy to "ameliorate" or "modulate" Chinese paintings had to rely on the cooperation of power mechanisms. Paradoxically, this process includes not only imitations of the Occidental, but also imaginations of the "Oriental." And either can be viewed as products of cultural imaginations. By standing on the shoulders of the study of ethnicity, this thesis will scrutinize how this perspective was format under such discourses.

Influenced by prewar Chinese painting reformist thoughts, postwar Taiwanese art criticism has developed a particular kind of Orientalism. Firstly, this paper will examine the government's policy and take a national identity approach to reveal the relationships between Orientalism and nationalism. Secondly, I will focus on art institutions such as provincial art exhibition and art colleges, and discuss about the process from which academic aesthetic standards derive. After that, this research will point out how these standards have effected the rise of Orientalism, and describe the process in which Orientalism as a means of identification has constructed itself. At last, I will analyze discourse strategies and patterns manipulated by art societies, and how they use collective memories to create the space of Orientalism.