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This essay investigates the conditions of portrait photography in Taiwan during Japanese colonization. After a brief introduction to the theoretical issues concerning the indexical nature of the photograph, I consider the Japanese colonial photographic industry and its products (portraits) in three contexts: the state of photographic technology in the world at that time, the ideological machinery of colonization in Taiwan, and the wider phenomenon of colonial mimicry. In this consideration, I offer a diachronic analysis of photo albums and commercial directories that contain formal portraits of politically and economically influential (almost exclusively) men. Bringing these considerations together suggests an aspect of the colonial ideological machinery that has been underrepresented in other studies: the colonial portrait as a mask in several forms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines Taiwan in the Japanese period, focusing on an uprising in 1915 known as the Ta-pa-ni Incident and how the encroachments of the colonial state met with resistance. Relationship of the colonial state and the local society; Condition of the local society at the time of the Ta-pa-ni Incident; Impact of the Japanese colonial government; Effect of the Ta-pa-ni Incident on Local Society.

Explores the changes in camphor production with the coming of Japanese colonialism and the changes that celluloid brought to the world demand of camphor from 1886 to 1909 in Taiwan. Details of the commodity and tribe at the center of the late imperial frontier economy; Information on the customary forest rights and the system of mountain fees; Introduction of capitalist property relations to the forests.

Deals with interethnic marriage and cultural brokers in Taiwan under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945. Details of the variety of ways in which Aboriginal women married to Japanese men played crucial intermediary roles; Exploration of the role of family systems and racialized ideologies in these formations; Information on marriage, concubinage and brokerage in the North.