From Commemorations to Carnivals: On Emergent Popular-Culture Nationalism in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Han-Teng Liao, 廖漢騰
• Other Authors: A-chin Hsiau
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21122752989348372331

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 新聞研究所 === 92 === The New Year Eve Party, which was launched by President Chen, is characteristic of Taiwan’s national events during the past decade. It is not only an event marking the first peaceful political transition in Taiwan but also serves as a template for media events. The study of New Year Eve Party can thus throw light upon the way how President Chen organizes parties and festivals with a view to fostering a climate favorable to the transition. This paper attempts to analyze the New Year Eve Party in terms of the concept of “media event”. The media have played a role which they did not assume in the old regime. The media not only organize new festivals, produce new spectacle and historical events but also create new collective memory. All these in turn contribute to the emergent form of “popular-culture nationalism”. With the concept of popular-culture nationalism, this paper suggests, we could go beyond the common conceptual binaries of democracy/populism, rational/emotional, civic/ethnic nationalism.