Landscape Colonization/Cultivation

Research Title: Collective Memory and Politics of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation 台灣糖業公司的地理文化、歷史記憶與政策治理

*Awarded Penny White Travel Grant Project (Harvard), 2016

*Awarded Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Summer Grant (Harvard), 2016

This project examines former sites of Taiwan’s sugar industry, which operated under Japanese colonial rule and later consolidated into the state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) under Chinese Nationalist rule. These sites, located in former factory districts and on sugar plantation land, have been redeveloped or preserved as cultural parks, biotechnology hubs, museums, art centers, and more. The research catalogs these areas and surrounding communities to clarify complex political and governance processes through an institutional lens. It also illustrates how landscapes of production have been repurposed as cultural landscapes, revealing the histories of extractive industries, agriculture, and state-nation relationships. The following graphics—photographs, maps, and diagrams—represent part of the project’s visual documentation.

Historic Taiwan Sugar Corporation Factory District Map c. 1980

Landscape Palimpsest: Overview of Historic Transformations on Taiwan Sugar Corporation’s Land

Landscape Palimpsest: Vignettes of Key Sites of TSC Land Transformation