Isolation, identity and Taiwanese stamps as vehicles for regime legitimation

East Asia

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 8-30

  Deans, Phil ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Identity; Legitimacy; Postage stamps; Taiwan

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL IDENTITY; POLITICAL CHANGE; POLITICAL IDEOLOGY;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; TAIWAN;

EID: 33645314406     PISSN: 10966838     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s12140-005-0007-5     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. Jacques E. C. Hymans "The Changing Color of Money: European Currency Iconography and Collective Identity" European Journal of International Relations Vol. 10 No. 4: 5-31.
2. While I am broadly sympathetic with the arguments over identity construction and creation, I do have lingering concerns that they tend to deny or underrate the agency of the populace as a whole - at times they appear rather like Mao Zedong's 'blank sheet of paper' on which the 'freshest and most beautiful pictures can be painted' by state or the Party, Mao Zedong 'Introducing a Cooperative' (15 April 1958) in The Collected Works of Mao Zedong (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1958).
3. Hymans op. cit. p. 7.
4. Not including reprints and overprints. All data is taken from Postage Stamps Catalogue of the Republic of China, 1878-1996 (Taipei, Directorate General of Posts, 1996) and various years 1997-2004.
5. For a discussion see Phil Deans "Cross Straits Relations since 1949: from radicalism to conservatism and back again" China Aktuel 3/2005: 25-35.
6. Allen J. Chun "The Culture Industry as National Enterprise: The Politics of Heritage in Contemporary Taiwan" in Virginia R. Dominguez and David Y. H. Wu From Beijing to Port Moresby: The Politics of National Identity in Cultural Policies (Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, 1998): 77-113.
7. Postage Stamps Catalogue of the Republic of China, 1878-1996 and various years 1997-2004. On-line at: http://www.post.gov.tw/post/internet/ u_english/index.htm All references to the catalogue include page numbers and a reference to the official designation of the stamp issue.
8. Xiong Yisheng Zhongguo Youpiao Fenlei Mulu [A Classified Chinese Postage Stamp Catalogue] (Taipei, Zhonghua Shuju, 1990).
9. Earlier versions of this paper along with extensive images were presented and discussed at a conference in Sheffield (August 2004), at the Taiwan Studies Seminar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (February 2005) and at the European Association of Taiwan Studies in Bochum, Germany in April 2005. In addition selected samples of images were discussed with a cross-section of some 20 Taiwanese residents in London between August 2004 and April 2005.
10. Interviews with former members of ChungHwa Post.
11. Unattributable interviews with former ChungHwa Post staff.
12. Definitive 75 'Cheng Cheng-kung Issue' 1950 PSC 1996 p. 188.
13. Definitive 80 'President Chiang Kai-shek Issue' 1953 PSC 1996 pp. 197-198.
14. Definitive 81 'Reforestation Movement' 1954 PSC 1996 p. 200.
15. Definitive 83 'Map of China (Lithography)' 1957 PSC 1996 p. 211.
16. Definitive 85 'Presidential Mansion' 1958 PSC 1996 pp. 216-217.
17. Jason C. Kuo Art and Cultural Politics in Postwar Taiwan (Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 2000) p. 24.
18. Definitive 86 'Kinmen Chu Kwang Tower' 1959 PSC 1996 pp. 221-2.
19. T. E. Stopler China, Taiwan and the Offshore Islands (Armonk and London, M. E. Sharpe: 1985)
20. and Phil Deans "Cross Straits Relations since 1949: from radicalism to conservatism and back again", Perspectives on Cross-Strait Relations Gunter Schucher and Margot Schueller (eds.) Hamburg, Institute of Asian Affairs.
21. PSC 1996, p. 222.
22. Definitive 89 'Double Carp Stamps' 1965 PSC 1996 pp. 264-5.
23. Definitive 90 'Flying Geese in Line' 1966 PSC 1996 pp. 273-4.
24. Defintive 96 ,Chinese Culture Heroes' 1972 PSC 1996 pp. 324-5. All references to dollars in the text are to New Taiwan Dollars (NT$) unless specifically stated otherwise.
25. Definitive 91 'Chungshan Building' 1968 PSC 1996 pp. 280-1.
26. Definitive 95 'Dignity with Self-Reliance' 1972 PSC 1996 pp. 319-320.
27. Definitive 97 'Nine Major Construction Projects' 1974 PSC 1996 pp. 347-8.
28. Definitive 101 'National Flag' 1978 PSC 1996 pp. 384-6.
29. Definitive 102 'National Flower' 1979 PSC 1996 p. 391-2.
30. Definitive 105 'Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall' 1981 PSC 1996 pp. 409-10.
31. Definitive 107 'Pine Bamboo and Plumb' 1984 PSC 1996 pp. 445-7.
32. PSC 1996 pp. 446-7.
33. Definitive 108 'Lighthouse' 1989 PSC 1996 pp. 489-490.
34. I would like to thank Jean-Pierre Cabestan for this reading.
35. Definitive 111 'Lucky Animals' 1995 PSC 1996 pp. 530-531;
36. Definitive 112 'Ancient Chinese Engraving Art' PSC 1996 pp. 552-3.
37. Definitive 118 'Taiwanese Fruit' 2001 PSC 2001 pp. 9-13.
38. Ibid. p. 9.
39. Special 446 'Regional Opera Series: Taiwanese Puppetry' 2003 PSC 2003 pp. 19-20.
40. Special 400 'Taiwan's Aboriginal Culture' 1999 PSC 1999 pp. 25-27.
41. The 1940 Dr Sun Yat-sen (Hong Kong Print) and 1940 Martyrs Issue (HK Print) defintitives were overprinted 'To Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic of China'. Referring to 1941, the PSC 1996 states, "the critical situation of War with Japan did not permit the issue of commemorative stamps." p. 77.
42. Commemorative 72 '50th National Day of the ROC' 1961 PSC 1996 p. 241.
43. Commemorative 138 '60th National Day' 1971 PSC 1996 p. 314. The 'Double Ten' symbol derives from the date of the founding of the ROC (10 October 1911) and consists of the two characters for the number ten written side by side.
44. Commemorative 183 '70th Anniversary of the Founding of the ROC' 1981 PSC 1996 pp. 414-5.
45. Commemorative 235 '80th Anniversary of the Founding of the ROC' 1991 PSC 1996 p. 508.
46. Ibid.
47. Unusually the stamps were issued in March 1991, rather than on the date of actual anniversary in October.
48. Commemorative 282 '90th Anniversary of the Founding of the ROC' 2001 PSC 2001 pp. 64-66.
49. Commemorative 255 '50th Anniversary of Victory of the Sino Japanese War [sic] and Taiwan Retrocession' 1995 PSC 1996 pp. 559-60.
50. Commemorative 256 '100th Anniversary of Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute' 1995 PSC 1996 p. 561.
51. Phil Deans 'Nationalism(s) on Taiwan and the issue of Japan' paper presented to the Japan Association of Taiwan Studies, University of Tokyo 10 April 2004.
52. Commemorative 252 'Centennial of National Taiwan University Hospital' 1995 PSC 1996 p. 557.
53. Commemorative 292 '25th Veterans Day' 2003 PSC 2003 pp. 57-58.
54. There is a large literature on the 2-28 Incident, especially in Chinese. Two important English language works are A Tragic Beginning: the Taiwan Uprising of February 28, 1947 Lai Tse-han, Ramon H. Myers and Wei Wou (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991) and George Kerr Formosa Betrayed (London: Houghton Mifflin, 1965).
55. Commemorative 26 'Retrocession of Taiwan' 1947 PSC 1996 p. 138.
56. Dennis Altman Paper Ambassadors: the politics of stamps North Ryde: Collins, 1991).
57. Although the ROC recognised the independence of Mongolia in 1946, this recognition was withdrawn in 1953 when Chiang Kai-shek revoked the Sino[ROC]-Soviet Friendship Treaty. See 'Onward to Mongolia' Taipei Review January 2003.
58. Commemorative 291 'Anniversary of Accession to the World Trade Organisation' 2003 PSC 2003 p. 2. Taiwan entered the WTO as 'The Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Matsu and Kinmen'.
59. Commemorative 296 '11th Presidential Inauguration Issue' 2004 PSC 2004.
60. Special 469 'International Day of Peace' PSC 2004 p. 6.
61. Ibid.
62. Commemorative 297 '2004 Athens Olympic Medal Winners' 2004 PSC 2004 n.p.r.
63. Commemorative 217 '100th Birthday of President Chiang Kai-shek' PSC 1996 p. 467.
64. Commemorative 217 '100th Birthday of President Chiang Kai-shek' PSC 1996 p. 467.
65. For a discussion see Stéphane Corcuff "The Symbolic Dimension of Democratization and the Transition of National Identity under Lee Teng-hui" in Stéphane Corcuff (ed.) Memories of the Future: National Identity Issues in the Search for a New Taiwan (Armonk and London: M. E. Sharpe, 2002) pp. 73-101.
66. Commemorative 229 'Anniversary of the Death of Chiang Ching-kuo' 1989 PSC 1996 p. 448.
67. Special 198 'Scenery of Mongolia and Tibet' 1984 PSC 1996 p. 432.
68. Special 212 'China's Reunification under the Three Principles of the People' 1984 PSC 1996 p. 445.
69. Special 320 'Yangtze River' 1993 PSC 1996 pp. 534-5.
70. Commemorative 32 'Self-Government in Taiwan province' 1951 PSC 1996 pp. 189-190.
71. For an overview see Shelly Rigger, Politics in Taiwan: Voting for Democracy (London and New York: Routledge, 1999).
72. Special 12 'Leaders of Democracy' 1959 PSC 1996 p. 226-7.
73. Commemorative 86 'Chinese Refugees Feeling Mainland for Freedom' 1963 PSC 1996 p. 252.
74. Commemorative 83 'Freedom From Hunger Campaign' 1963 PSC 1996 p. 250.
75. Special 422 'Children's Folk Rhymes' 2001 PSC 2001 p. 17.
76. Definitive 97 'Nine Major Construction Projects' 1974 PSC 1996 pp. 347-8.
77. Special 165 'Completion of Ten Major Construction Projects' 1980 PSC 1996 pp. 403-4.
78. Commemorative 171 'Sino-Saudi Bridge' 1978 PSC 1996 pp. 383-4.
79. Commemorative 251 'Inauguration of National Health Insurance' 1995 PSC 1996 pp. 553-4.
80. Commemorative 143 'Stamps Marking the Winning of Twin Championships of the 1972 Little League World Series by the ROC Teams.
81. Commemorative 284 'XXXIV Baseball World Cup Taipei 2001' 2001 PSC 2001 pp. 69-70.
82. Commemorative 288 '2002IPC World Table Tennis Championships' 2002 PSC 2002 p. 45.
83. See, for example, Commemorative 245 '100th Anniversary of the International Olympic Committee' 1994 PSC 1996 p. 546.
84. Commemorative 297 '2004 Athens Olympic Medal Winners' 2004 PSC 2004 n.p.r.
85. Commemorative 44 '10th Anniversary of the United Nations' 1955 PSC 1996 pp. 204-5;
86. Commemorative 135 '25th Anniversary of the United Nations' 1971 PSC 1996 p. 305
87. Definitive 95 'Dignity with Self-Reliance' 1972 PSC 1996 pp. 319-320.
88. Commemorative 143 'Stamps Marking the Winning of Twin Championships of the 1972 Little League World Series by the ROC Teams.
89. Commemorative 217 '100th Birthday of President Chiang Kai-shek' PSC 1996 p. 467.
90. Commemorative 289 'The ROC and the Holy See Relations' 2002 PSC 2002 pp. 50-51
91. Special 336 'Protection of Intellectual Property Rights' 1994 PSC 1994 p. 545.
92. Commemorative 242 '20th Anniversary of the AVRDC' 1993 PSC 1994 p. 540.
93. Note that commercial concerns are increasingly important in stamps issues on Taiwan, as was seen in 2004 with the issue of stamps portraying 'Hello Kitty' (Special 468 'Cartoon Figure Hello Kitty' PSC 2004 2004)
94. and Harry Potter (Special 462 'Cinema Postage Stamps: Harry Potter' PSC 2004 2004). These stamps were designed with the primary purpose of generating revenue through sales to collectors - a phenomena most marked in North Korea stamps issues. Nonetheless, the 'Hello Kitty' series also contains images of Taiwan.