histories. These can supplement inadequacies in the documentary record and also help reconstruct long-ignored aspects of days gone by.
Did you know that in the Japanese occupation era, not just anybody could be a hair stylist? One had to pass a government exam covering several subjects. After passing the exam, a physical was required to prove that one did not have tuberculosis or some other communicable disease. It was also necessary to study biology.
Did you know that, in the days before the end of the Japanese occupation, when times were hard, it became common for people to give their daughters up to other families, after which the girl would become a daughter-in-law in her adoptive family? If the adopted girl met her ideal man and wanted to break off the marriage contract, her adoptive parents would not dare to let her marry out, for fear others would say they had "sold their daughter-in-law." Such were some of the marital relationships that evolved among the common people in hard times.
In the latter part of the Japanese occupation era, many families adopted Japanese surnames and spoke Japanese at home, becoming model "national language" families. But do you know the real reason they did so? It was because of parental love--to help their children advance in school.
A new trend of oral history
These are not dubious anecdotes without factual basis. They come from some of the many oral histories currently on the market.
Its hard to say when it all started, but oral histories have become hot products of late. Take for example the special issue of the journal Oral History on the February 28 incident produced by the Academia Sinica. Released in February of 1992, by November all 2000 copies had sold out. "Even now people come in asking about this issue," says a young woman working at the San Min Bookstore.
Academic institutions are not the only ones involved; oral histories now figure prominently among the publications of some local governments. For example, last year the Taipei County Cultural Center published Wartime Experiences of Taiwanese Soldiers in the Japanese Army. Plans exist to publish Taiwanese Soldiers in Mainland China, The Experiences of Taiwanese Teachers, and The Experiences of Women of Taipei County in the Japanese Occupation Era. All these are transcriptions of interviews.
In Chiayi City in southern Taiwan, beginning last year, mayor Chang Wen-ying led the way in sponsoring a three-volume oral history of experiences in Chiayi City during the February 28 incident, focusing on local families that were victimized in that event.
In addition, both government and private groups have continually sponsored discussion sessions with large groups of elderly people. Themes have included everything from the evolution of marital and funereal customs and the rise and fall of traditional industries like pastry-making and clothing to education and military affairs in the Japanese occupation era and the origins of poetry societies. The transcripts of these seminars also count as oral histories, broadly speaking.
Challenging mainstream history
The end of the 20th century can be seen as an era of "deconstruction" of viewpoints. Perspectives long seen as orthodox and mainstream are being reassessed. The traditional structure of "history as constructed by the rulers, the literati, the dominant ethnic group, and by males" is being challenged everywhere. Histories written from the point of view of minority groups, women, and the common people are being produced.
Placed in the context of Taiwan's history, there are further reasons why there has been a wave of oral histories in the 1990s.
In recent years there has been intense interest in "nativism" in Taiwan. Both the government and private researchers have been reassessing local history. But efforts to understand the past first have had to face an important obstacle: Documentary sources are inadequate to describe past events, especially when it comes to the lives of ordinary people. Hsu Hsueh-chi, a research fellow at the Institute of Modern History at the Academia Sinica, offers the following example: If one wants to write a history of local industry, while there are enough documentary materials to get started on large-state run corporations like Taiwan Power Company, there is virtually nothing on private business, especially craft industries like carving. The only alternative has been to rely on oral histories.
Another reason behind the flood of oral histories is that, with regard to several sensitive issues from the past, official views have long differed from those in society. The February 28 incident of 1947, when thousands of people were killed by government forces, is the most obvious example. "There are thousands of official documents, but they all say exactly the same thing--anyone harmed in the incident is labeled as 'using violence to oppose the government,'" says Hsu. The biases and gaps in official records meant that, when in the 1990s the government began to look seriously at the February 28 incident for the first time, people could only rely on subjective opinions, or were left with nothing to say at all. Though oral histories are still not adequate to compensate for all gaps, they can contribute some missing pieces of the puzzle.
An old tradition in history
There is a long tradition of oral histories both in China and elsewhere. Some of the earliest of China's historic documents, like the "Legends of Assassins" in the Shi Ji [Historical Records], are of this type, as are some foreign sources like the record of Marco Polo's travels. Even parts of the Bible--the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke--are composed of individual memories and talks with people of the same generation as Christ; this too is "oral history."
But oral histories only truly began to flourish after World War II. Columbia University, well known for its historical research, has been especially noteworthy in this respect. Using the newly invented tape recorder, the university made a record of interviews with leading political, economic, and military figures of the wartime era.
Beginning in 1959, the Far East Association of Columbia and the Institute of Modern History of the Academia Sinica began a major effort to record interviews with key figures who had fled from mainland China to Taiwan. By 1994, 53 volumes of interview transcripts had been published. This effort sparked local historical institutes, such as the Kuomintang Party History Commission, the Bureau of Historical Compilation of the Ministry of Defense, and the Academia Historica, to conduct a series of interviews with figures from the wars against Japan and against the Communists. This marked the first wave of oral histories in post- war Taiwan.
Hsu Hsueh-chi says that the Academia Sinica chose to make an oral history because not everyone is capable of writing a book, but it is still valuable to have a record of their experiences. The people interviewed were key players in certain historical incidents, and these transcripts can be of great help to historians studying the Republican era in China. Their testimony is especially important because, for one thing, when the Communists won the Civil War, there was not enough time to bring many documents out of mainland China. Also, because of the Civil War, different political orientations have produced markedly different records and interpretations of the past. The publication of these oral histories can make a great contribution to historical studies.
Compensating for documentary gaps
One of the main objectives of oral histories is to compensate for gaps in the documentary record. In recent years "Taiwan consciousness" has burgeoned, but there has long been a shortage of research into Taiwan history. Thus there is a tremendous thirst for Taiwan studies in society, and oral histories have certainly been able to compensate for many gaps in the documentary record of Taiwan.
Take for example author Liao Chia-chan's "New Birth of an Old Town." In it he describes what it was like when the Japanese came to Taiwan, offering a radically different picture of the past than that available in most written histories.
"By July 15, the Japanese Army had made it as far as Tapulin. The Resistance Army rose to meet them, but the resistance fighters were surrounded and attacked by local people from Tamao Street. The resistance fighters fled to Hsinkang, where they were captured by villagers. At the headquarters of the resistance at the Fengtian Temple, villagers advocated that the 'rebels' be beheaded. At the time, the Resistance Army, which was defeated in central Taiwan and was retreating southward, was attacked all along the route by villagers who did not understand what was going on. Some people from mainland China, who had come to Taiwan and repaired pottery for a living, were mistaken for traitors and met with misfortune. Twelve resistance fighters who fled to Hsin-kang were protected by Lin Wei-chao, and that's the only way they escaped being slaughtered."
Most histories of the Japanese takeover of Taiwan describe all Taiwanese as "resisting Japan." But in fact the local reaction to the change in regime was very complex. Taiwanese were themselves divided into different groups depending upon their place of origin in mainland China, and the real situation of how much resistance there really was to Japan remains unclear. Chou Wan-yao, an assistant researcher with the preparatory office of the Institute of Taiwan History at the Academia Sinica, believes that this oral testimony is of great value in helping later generations understand the past.
Last year the Ilan County government held a series of seminars involving elderly people from all over the county to recount certain aspects of life under the Japanese. Remem-brances were collected together and published as Military Affairs and Education in the Japanese Occupation Era. The book recounts that many Ilan residents died in Allied air raids during World War II, provides background behind why many families changed to Japanese surnames and became "national language [i.e. Japanese language] households," describes how many people secretly pursued traditional Chinese education in the early years after the Japanese takeover, and illustrates the daily lives of the people of Ilan in the occupation period. "It covers everything from the larger issue of national identity right down to the details of daily life," says Chou Wan-yao.
Most oral histories currently on the market focus on people over 70 years of age. These people directly witnessed the Japanese occupation and the arrival of the Nationalist government; they went through war and have seen tremendous political and economic changes. Their testimony is especially helpful in compensating for the dearth of data about the last ten years of Japanese colonial rule (1935- 1945). Moreover, if these septugenarians can recall what their elders told them when they were children, oral history can stretch back even farther. If the people involved are over 80 or 90, they can even describe the early days of Japanese rule.
Repressed history strikes back
The greatest impact of oral histories these past few years has been in covering "forgotten" historical territory--such as the stories of the February 28 incident, Taiwanese soldiers, women, and common citizens.
Taking the February 28 incident for example, historical data on the incident has been reconstructed bit by bit from oral testimony. Because of inadequacies in the relevant documentary materials, it is only through set after set of interviews that basic evidence has been acquired. Thus we can learn, for example, what happened in each locality, and find out about the lives of those killed or injured.
Another case in which oral history has been important is the story of Taiwanese soldiers mobilized by the Japanese colonial regime to fight in the Imperial Army in the war against China. "In previous histories, the war between China and Japan was always 'The War of Resistance Against Japan.' History books never mentioned that there were Taiwanese who fought on the Japanese side," says Cheng Li-ling, who handled the Wartime Experiences of Taiwanese Soldiers in the Japanese Army oral history for the Taipei County Cultural Center.
An oral history of their experiences is vital because there are no stories of Taiwanese soldiers of Japan in the existing historical texts. In many biographies of Taiwanese figures from the Japanese occupation era, "often the narrative jumps directly from the 1920s to the postwar period," says Cheng Li-ling.
In addition to providing basic information about Taiwanese who were mobilized and sent overseas to fight at that time, interviews with Taiwanese soldiers for Japan "can help us understand the reasoning and feelings of the younger generation at the time of the Sino- Japanese War," says Chou Wan-yao. For example, the "voluntary" commitment of some soldiers was actually due to their desire to improve their family's economic situation, or was the result of coercion. Even more individuals thought it was glorious to be a soldier, and considered it an elevation of their status as colonial subjects to be allowed to go to war "just like the Japanese."
Chou Wan-yao believes that reconstructing the history of that era is very important. Understanding how the Japanese colonial government tried to mold Taiwanese into Japanese, and how Taiwanese responded, can provide important clues to answering questions about the origin of "Taiwanese consciousness" currently being explored by historians.
From a woman's point of view
Other important foci of oral histories have been women and the common people.
Chiang Wen-yu, former director of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights and the editor of two volumes of oral histories of women, points out that most history has been written for the rulers, and most of the rulers have been male. There has been little or no discussion of women's lives, such as the custom of sending girls off to other families to be raised for future marriage into those families. Not only have such issues rarely been mentioned in the structure of history which places politics at the center, even less likely is it that they have been depicted from a woman's point of view. The current wave of oral histories is giving women of that bygone era the power to speak out.
Chiang notes that the "feminist perspective" on history, narrowly defined, is to look at issues from the angle of "women's rights." For example, in the chapter on "February 28 Victim Family Member Chuang Cheng-hua" in her volume Disappearing Taiwanese Grandmothers, the focus is not on the February 28 incident per se, or on the life of Chuang's father, who was killed. Rather, it is on the relationship between Chuang and her father, and on the economic and marital problems brought on Chuang and her family by the incident.
Interestingly, the very fact that Chiang was able to "enter history" through editing these books has given her an even more acute sensibility of how most people are accustomed to using a male perspective when looking at past events. For example, in the film Super Citizen Ko, faced with tragedy, the wife of the February 28 incident victim kills herself. But, according to women's oral histories that she has collected, Chiang says that very few wives of victims chose to react to their suffering in this way. On the contrary, most became stronger and took on the responsibility of supporting themselves and their families, raising the children alone.
Tanks rust, while pears endure forever
Women are the not the only group whose history is finally getting attention. The 20th century is the age of democracy, when everyone has one vote in elections and people are more equal than ever before. Who says that ordinary people living their daily lives cannot have their own history?
The idea of writing history about ordinary people is not new, but there are few in Taiwan who have gathered the resources and gone out and done it. The recent wave of oral histories has been a step forward in terms of accumulating data on the lives of ordinary folks. Perhaps foremost in this effort has been Ilan Documents, the journal of the historical office of Ilan County. It has carried a series of interviews with hairdressers, cooks, bus drivers, musicians, watch makers, coffin shop owners and oven-builders. Thus far these mark the most systematic collection of interviews with common citizens at the local level.
Some interviews have gathered much information on old occupations. For example, Chang Kun-wang tells what it was like to have been a hairdresser in the Japanese occupation era. The work environment included an electric fan, and young people aspired to enter the profession. At that time there were many rules governing the industry. For example, those wanting to learn hairdressing had to first study hair-washing, then facials. From Chang's oral history we can learn about popular hair styles of their day, how long one had to study to become a stylist, and the fact that opening a shop required passing a government exam to get a license.
Another oral history of note is that of the musician and actor Liu Chin, a member of the Taiwanese opera troupe of the legendary "Ilan Ying." Liu's seventy-year lifespan has essentially coincided with the rise and fall of Taiwanese opera. Because Liu was very familiar with the late Ilan Ying, through interviews with Liu the character and personality of Ilan Ying are vividly depicted, yielding valuable first- hand information for future researchers studying the history of Taiwanese opera in Ilan.
The oral histories of ordinary people from Ilan reveal the tragedies and joys of a specific group of people in a given historical context. For example, in an interview with farmer Huang Chin-wan about the opening up of land in Ta-nan-ao, Huang tells how in the Taisho Japanese imperial reign, eight Ilan families traveled to Ta-nan-ao, an hour by boat from Su-ao, as pioneers. Countless people were killed or injured, and Huang is the only one of those pioneers who is still alive today. His greatest dream is to put a memorial at the place where they came ashore. Through oral histories, the hopes and dreams of ordinary people have found expression.
For the heading of the first issue of Ilan Documents carrying the series of oral histories of ordinary people, editor-in-chief Lin Ko-chin borrowed the words of the writer Milan Kundera: "But are tanks really more important than pears? . . . Tanks rust, but pears endure forever."
Perhaps in this wave of oral histories in late 20th century Taiwan, that is the case! They have certainly broadened our perspective on history, allowing us to see more than just the stories of emperors and generals, but also of women, disadvantaged groups, and ordinary people. Isn't each of these valuable in its own way?
Besides the more traditional method of transcribing and publishing oral histories in book form, this wave of oral histories has also moved some people to employ audio and video tapes to record important current events and what is happening around them, making a history that is alive and vibrant.
The great wheel of history keeps on turning. By the 21st century, there will be new historical perspectives and technologies. When people of the future look back on us and our time, what they will reflect on?
p.78
The man in the photo participated in the New Literature Movement in the Japanese occupation era. Sadly, he died shortly after the interview was conducted. Taking the oral histories of elderly people is a race against time, and may truly be seen as rescuing history "from the jaws of death." (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)
p.80
This bunker on the Ilan coast was built in WWII by the Japanese to repel a possible landing by US troops.
This banner, containing signatures wishing the Japanese army well in its "sacred war" against China, was taken from Japanese prisoners of war. Slogans like "Each one kill ten" reveal the atmosphere of aggression cultivated under Japanese militarism.
(photo courtesy of Excellence Communication Company)
p.81
The story of Taiwanese soldiers in the Japanese army was long a neglected part of history that only in recent years has come to be better known. The photo, featuring Yangmei resident Chu Ta-wen, was taken in 1938. (photo courtesy of Wu Chin-jung)
p.82
(facing page) In February of 1995, a ceremony was held in New Park to unveil the February 28 Incident Memorial; President Lee Teng-hui, in his status as the nation's leader, apologized to victims of the incident and admitted errors made by the government. The park was also renamed "February 28 Incident Peace Park."
(left) A woman attend-ing the ceremony holds a photo of a departed loved one, her grief apparent in her face.
p.84
The oven-building industry was an important part of daily life that has since disappeared. An individual who knows this skill--a rare find--
is also the subject of an oral history interview.
Liu Chin, who could transcribe music, was a musician for the Ilan Ying Taiwanese opera troupe. This is a song he wrote to commemorate his late friend and boss Ilan Ying. (photo courtesy of Chang Wen-yi)
p.85
Ilan hair stylist Chang Kun-wang says that the hair style popular in the Japanese occupation era had its roots in Japan's Meiji Restoration period. The old gent not only is a great story-teller of past events, he was a first-class stylist as well.
p.86
Since WWII, interpretations of history have undergone several dramatic shifts. Re-examining the past to understand the present is the tricky part of historical studies. The photo, taken in 1945, shows the Yangmei Theater. (photo courtesy of Wu Chin-jung)
p.87
This is a certificate for a Taiwanese teacher in a Japanese-era school. One of the issues recently explored through oral history is how the colonial government used
education to try to turn Taiwanese into Japanese.
The story of Taiwanese soldiers in the Japanese army was long a neglecte d part of history that only in recent years has come to be better known. The photo, featuring Yangmei resident Chu Ta-wen, was taken in 19 38. （photo courtesy of Wu Chin-jung）
（facing page） In February of 1995, a ceremony was held in New Park to unveil the February 28 Incident Memorial; President Lee Teng-hui, in his status as the nation's leader, apologized to victims of the incident and admitted errors made by the government. The park was also renamed "February 28 Incident Peace Park.".
（left） A woman attend ing the ceremony holds a photo of a departed loved one, her grief apparent in her face.
Liu Chin, who could transcribe music, was a musician for the Ilan Ying Taiwanese opera troupe. This is a song he wrote to commemorate his late friend and boss Ilan Ying. （photo courtesy of Chang Wen-yi）
The oven-building industry was an important part of daily life that has since disappeared. An individual who knows this skill--a rare find-- is also the subject of an oral history interview.
Ilan hair stylist Chang Kun-wang says that the hair style popular in the Japanese occupation era had its roots in Japan's Meiji Restoration period. The old gent not only is a great story-teller of past events, he was a first-class stylist as well.
Since WWII, interpretations of history have undergone several dramatic s hifts. Re-examining the past to understand the present is the tricky par t of historical studies. The photo, taken in 1945, shows the Yangmei Theat er. （photo courtesy of Wu Chin-jung）
This is a certificate for a Taiwanese teacher in a Japanese-era school. One of the issues recently explored through oral history is how the colonial government used education to try to turn Taiwanese into Japanese.
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