Ironic indigenous primitivism : Taiwan's first 'native feature' in an era of ethnic tourism
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Journal of Chinese Cinemas
Publication Date
9-2014
Volume
8
Issue
3
First Page
209
Last Page
225
Publisher
Routledge
Keywords
Taiwan, primitivism, indigenous film, Sayon's Bell, ethnic tourism, authenticity
Abstract
How do contemporary indigenous filmmakers regard primitivism? By way of reply, this article examines Laha Mebow's appropriation of a primitive Sayun in her 2011 film Finding Sayun. 'The beautiful maiden' Sayun was used in the 1943 Japanese film Sayon's Bell to promote wartime mobilization in Taiwan, and has been used since the 1990s in local branding. Mebow seems ambivalent about Sayun: she identifies with Sayun, or at least with the Sayun in Finding Sayun, yet never loses critical distance. Mebow's ambivalence plays out as generic hybridity: Finding Sayun is at once a metafilm, a documentary and a search for roots. Her ambivalence also plays out as irony, and this article argues that, in an era of ethnic tourism, ironic indigenous primitivism is a tactic of packaging a community and then getting a viewer or visitor to open up the package and see what's inside.
DOI
10.1080/17508061.2014.949158
Print ISSN
17508061
E-ISSN
1750807X
Funding Information
This work was supported by the National Science Council (now the Ministry of Science and Technology) of the ROC [Grant No. 101-2410-H-002-206-]. {101-2410-H-002-206-}
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis
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Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Sterk, D. (2014). Ironic indigenous primitivism: Taiwan's first 'native feature' in an era of ethnic tourism. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 8(3), 209-225. doi: 10.1080/17508061.2014.949158