Ideology, Identity, and Architecture :Modernism, Postmodernism, andAntiquarianism in Taiwan

William S . Tay

Architecture is ideology frozen in time . As long as it is not destroyed, architecture is apermanent, synchronic existence . But beneath any surface synchronicity, there is al-ways a layer of historicity, the specific moment when a structure was conceived andconstructed . In this perspective, no different from other forms of art, architecture is alsooverdetermined, in the Althusserian sense, by the configuration of the infrastructureand the superstructure at a particular historical moment . Ideology and its traces,diachronic in nature, are then frozen or buried within the architectural presence . Byideology I do not only refer to the explicit trends, modes, and movements of thearchitectural history, but also to the implicit value systems, world views, and imaginaryways one comes to feel, understand, and interpret materialistic existence and itsconcomitant human relationships . It is in this sense that architecture can also be read asindicators of identification, icons of identity .

This brief paper is a preliminary attempt to gather my thoughts about some of thearchitectural forms and their ideological underpinnings in Taiwan . The paper makes noattempt to give a coherent historical argument, but consists merely of several fragmentsof reflections .

Western Modernism and Chinese Antiquarianism

Functionalism is generally considered as the guiding principle of the Western moder-nist architecture movement during the first half of the twentieth century . The essence offunctionalism is perhaps best summed up by Louis Sullivan's well-known aphorism"form follows function" (1896) . Functionalism or architectural modernism is not onlya significant change in aesthetic paradigm, but is also a new way of confronting newmaterials and different modes of making and producing . The new architectural mean-ing is generated by a movement from the understanding ofthe form to an understandingof the intended use of the form . The dissolution of the Bauhaus in 1933 and thedispersion of its members in the United States, in many ways not unlike the destiny ofthe Frankfurt School, eventually resulted in establishing architectural modernism aworld-wide phenomenon .

The history of teaching, learning, and experimenting with architectural moder-nism in Taiwan is an area still awaiting full investigation . But in terms of the economicgrowth and development of Taiwan, one can safely argue that the American variationsof the glass-concrete-steel International Style which drastically altered the Americancityscapes in the fifties did not arrive in Taipei until the mid-seventies . The Taiwanmodernist styles are often replications of their Western models . The late-moderniststyles (glass boxes and more self-aware combinations of shapes), which began toappear in the late seventies and early eighties in Taipei, continue to be copies of theirWestern counterparts . As these modernist and late-modernist buildings are so con-spicuous in Taipei, examples are perhaps unnecessary . Such massive simulations of the

West in Taiwan may suggest to some - say, the government officials in charge of theisland's international image and publicity - "internationalized development" andeconomical prosperity . But to others, such an architectural practice may be interpretedas cultural dependency and absence of self-conscious creative reflection . This massivetransplantation of the Western architectural forms also leads to an oft-disputed andtheoretically more intriguing issue, i .e ., the complex relations between ideology andartistic forms .

In the orthodox Marxist mechanical-reflectionist perspective, the modernist andlate-modernist forms favored by corporate institutions are ideologically suspect, asimple case of "guilt by association ." However, in the more sophisticated view ofTheodor W. Adorno, the glorification of usefulness by functionalism may be a failureto realize that as long as the nature of the society remains unchanged, with profit as aninsatiable desire, usefulness as a revolutionary concept in architectural aestheticscannot exist autonomously and would be displaced into some forms of subjugation andexploitation . Adorno's argument confers upon usefulness its own life and dialectic,revealing its dilemma and entrapment as the inevitable consequence of the larger,infrastructural forces of the bourgeois society. Using the nouveau roman as his ex-amples, Lucien Goldmann has persistently argued for an indirect homology betweencapitalist infrastructure and literary production with the artist as a mediating transin-dividual subject. Following the logic of these two arguments, one can move one stepfurther and argue that the cityscapes created by the modernist and late-modernistdesigns are mediated refYactions of the capitalist mode of production and its con-comitant objective and subjective alienation . The hardness of the building materials,the opacity of the megastructures, the extremities of the spaces, and the discontinuity ofthe serial vision are only some of the qualitative defects raised by Edward Relph, ascholar of urban studies . Robert Sommer, an environmental psychologist, even con-tends that the prison can be seen as the "real model" of modernist urban designs, for themetal fences, blank facades, barren space, and the spartan feeling appear to intimateauthority in control .

But these discussions, from the orthodox mechanical to the mediated dialectical,are all situated in the Western base-superstructure relationships . In the case of Taiwan,when the Western modernist architectural designs began to appear, the per capitaincome was less than US$2,000, still a long way from being labeled as a NIC (newlyindustrialized country) . This absence of a similar infrastructure simply repudiates anydiscussion of the Taiwan modernist experiments in the Western context and reducesthese experiments to technical borrowings and superficial imitations without theideological trappings . In this case, the original ideological implications of the Westernform are neutralized ; instead, they are replaced by new ideological significationsgenerated by the relationships between the First World and the Third World . Further-more, as Taipei had never had any genuine urban planning in the last five decades, thesudden rise of the modernist and late-modernist structures did not come about in anyorganized grand scheme, hence creating a coexistence of Western modernism with amotley mixture of forms . Despite the sharp incongruity of the cityscape, such inadver-tent juxtaposition, paradoxically and perhaps quite fortunately, had allowed the city toavoid total segregations of activities and to retain some indeterminacy and flexibility ofthe urban landscape for a period of time . Nevertheless, as old communities rapidlyvanish and new structures of various forms and shapes mushroom, the cityscape of

Taipei is perhaps by now beyond any rational redemption, a case not unlike thedevelopmental experience of the metropolises of many Third World countries.

If in Western architectural modernism, usefulness is not only privileged but alsomerged with aesthetics, the former notion certainly has no organic role in one kind ofcontemporary Chinese design, which can be described as Chinese antiquarian architectural practice . By Chinese antiquarianism I refer to the duplications, usually withoutconscious reflexivity of the original principles of usefulness and/or beauty, of thevarious external forms of traditional Chinese architecture with modern buildingmaterials and methods. The Grand Hotel constructed in the sixties and expanded in1971 is perhaps the most illustrative example of this architectural practice, which wasinitiated in early twentieth century China by Western architects as a means of repre-senting the so-called Chinese spirit (figures I and 2) . In the practice of some self-con-scious Chinese architects in the twenties and thirties, the problematique is no longer theslavish replication of the traditional styles, but how to invent anew lexicon or grammarwhich can be nationalistic as well as modern . This quest is no different from thenumerous attempts in twentieth century Chinese poetry to search for new forms whichare organic combinations of vernacular Chinese and modern sensibility. But this issueof the minzu xingshi [nationalistic form] or minzufengge [nationalistic style] is par-ticularly insurmountable for architecture as its practice is financially taxing and techni-cally demanding .

The Chinese antiquarian copies in Taiwan have consistently been sponsored bythe government as a bureaucratic compromise to consciously project a "Chinese"image. But official concession for whatever reason is certainly no justification forChinese architects not to wrestle with a crucial aesthetic issue, which even foreignarchitects practicing in China felt obliged to tackle . In my survey which is undoubtedlyincomprehensive, the Taiwan design for the Osaka World's Fair by Li Zuyuan (Li

Figure 1 .

Grand Hotel entrance .

Figure 2.

Front view of Grand Hotel .

Tsu-yuan) and others is a rare, early endeavor to create a representation which is both

"modern and national ." The dearth of designs in the latter mode and the prevalence of

Chinese antiquarianism continue to remind us of the difficulty of the modernization of

China. And the two extremes and their coexistence-imitation of Western modernism

and return to Chinese antiquarianism -can be interpreted as symptoms of ideological

confusion and failure to forge a new cultural identity .

Postmodernism and Third World Simulacrums

The meanings, periodizing, continuities, and discontinuities of modernism and

postmodernism in the various art forms have consistently been entanglements in the

critical practice and theoretical discourse of the past twodecades . Postmodern architec-

ture, however, is a decisive break from its predecessor: Robert Venturi's slogan "Less

is a bore" (1966) is the exact opposite of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's "Less is more"

(ca. 1923) . In this paper, postmodernism in architecture is understood as a system of

representation which encompasses both the traditional and modern Western styles and

embraces unabashedly both high and pop culture with ornamentalism, decorativeness,

pastiche, collage, parody, and playfulness as some of the manifest characteristics. This

understanding derives essentially from the practice of American architectural

postmodernism, which, to some critics, is different from the European reactions of

modernism.

By incorporating elements from the classical, the vernacular, and popular culture,

American postmodernism appears to be more egalitarian in spirit -seemingly a

distinct contrast from the imposition of the modernist designs on the masses with or

without their welcome by a few architectural elites . However, this strategic move also

allows some of the more playful and carnival designs, in particular the huge shoppingmalls and the downtown renovation projects, to be easily co-opted into the late-capitalist, multi-national, consumption-oriented economy, thus surreptitiously under-mining the surface egalitarianism and accessibility . And if the poetics of allusions -from the partial reproduction of a classical segment to the re-creation of a decorativedetail - is not intellectually recognized by the users/spectators and is merely per-ceived as "fun," or vague reminders of remote historical moments that one sometimeshas glimpses of in film productions, does not this poetics of reproducible quotationsreduce itself into a new, revitalized version of kitsch on a grand scale? In its demolish-ing of the organic or quasi-organic sense of beauty in the traditional aesthetic paradigm,architectural modernism can at least lay claim to a new authenticity besides being adeterminate negation (bestimmte Negation) or positive critique of the socio-culturalcondition . As Adorno once put it in general terms : "Modern art with all its blemishesand fallibilities is a critique of success, namely the success of traditional art which wasalways so unblemished and strong . Modernism is oriented critically to the insufficiencyof an older art that presented itself as though it was sufficient" (Aesthetic Theon 229) .But for postmodernism, since the poetics of intertextuality generates its effect andnewness precisely from the borrowing and juxtaposing of older signs which are now nomore than empty gestures, the new architectural practice is not only incapable of thecritique of its predecessor, but is perhaps ensnared to survive as an art form ofinauthenticity .

In this sense, the recent massive importation of American postmodernism intoTaiwan-even the glamorous and successful simulacrum of Hongguo (Hung-kuo)Business Tower (1991) at Tun-hua North Road designed by Li Zuyuan and constructedin 1991 - becomes copies of copies, echoes of echoes, foreign insertions which onceagain belie the ideological subordination and cultural dependency of a country that hasnever ceased the boasting of its long and glorious heritage . But if American postmoder-nism has played a constructive role in some multi-billion downtown renovationprojects which, despite being modern-day marketplaces, have at least carved out spacesfor "pleasurable" spectacle and carnival atmosphere, the simulacrums in Taiwan havesadly failed in this respect . However, in the most paradoxical way, the simulatedAmerican postmodernism in Taiwan, in terms of its return to historicism and its rhetoricof intertextuality, may also serve as an inspiration to grapple with the daunting chal-lenge of a modern n2inufngge . The Jiantan (Chinn-t'an) Youth Activity Center (1989)by Zhu Zuming (Chu Tsu-ming) and the Penghu (P'eng-hu) Youth Activity Center(1990) are two conscious and creative attempts in this direction by evoking a sense ofthe Taiwan architectural past through the selective and unobtrusive amalgamation oftraditional local building materials, basic forms, and decorative styles - the formerappears to be more successful in this delicate negotiation of the past and the present(Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6) . But the invasion of American postmodernism does not meanthat the modernist, late-modernist, and Chinese antiquarian designs are out . Theparatactic coexistence of these different styles is an analogy and a reminder of thesimultaneous advocacy of sharply divergent Western literary modes and trends in thetwenties and thirties of China . It is then perhaps not unjustifiable to argue that evenwhen the end of the century is to arrive soon, the more prosperous society of Taiwan isstill struggling with Western cultural hegemony .

Figure 3 .

Jiantan (Chien-t'an) Youth Activity Center.

Figure 4 .

Jiantan (Chien-t'an) Youth Activity Center.

Figure 5 .

Jiantan (Chien-t'an) Youth Activity Center.

Figure 6 .

Jiantan (Chien-t'an) Youth Activity Center .

Japanese Colonialism and Chinese Authoritarianism

Taiwan was Japan's colony from 1895 to 1945 . In terms of the global colonial history,the Japanese adventure in Taiwan, if judged by the standard of achieving culturaldomination and ideological control, is not a "successful" one . However, the Japanesecolonializing of Taiwan is perhaps a most unique case for the following reasons : (l)Unlike the Western imperialist rule of Latin America, Africa, and other parts of Asia,which was consistently total and absolute, with the original indigenous powers com-pletely subdued or demolished, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan was then propor-tionately a very small area of China . More significantly, the motherland continued tolanguish as a huge geographical polity across the Taiwan Strait, thus posing as areminder of sovereignty to the people if not as a threat to the occupation forces . (2) Asthe Chinese written language and classical Chinese literature were part of the culturalheritage of the Japanese elites, a decisive case of cultural superiority was not easy tofabricate . Western powers, however, were able to rationalize their expansions andsuppressions on the basis of the chauvinistic perceptions of their own cultures . (3) Partof the Chinese philosophical and religious traditions absorbed by Japan centuries agoallowed the two countries to share certain affinities in these realms ; perhaps theseaffinities made it difficult to destroy the national and cultural consciousness of thecolonized as they were not entirely opposing systems .

Perhaps the only superiority which Japan could boast of at the time of taking overTaiwan was that Japan was the first industrialized and "Westernized" country in Asia .(Needless to say, there must have been other claims and justification which wouldrequire a scholarly archaeology to unearth) . Indeed, Japan's occupation of Taiwan wasconfined to rudimentary industrialized development in the Western manner. The lin-guistic and literary colonization of Latin America and Africa by the Western powers didnot happen in Taiwan, as witnessed by the perseverance of the Chinese script and theFujian dialect . If the Japanese dominance and superiority were to be mainly rational-ized on the ground that they were the first "Westerners" in Asia, then it was notaccidental that instead of constructing a governor's building in the Japanese style,which was adopted for other structures such as the railroad stations, the GothicRevivalism of Victorian England was emulated . (During the Meiji era, in order toaccomplish the task of constructing government buildings and to establish an educationsystem for architecture, foreign experts were invited to Japan - among whom theBritish architect Josiah Condor was the most influential .) Since government buildingsare nearly always representations of historical character and even ideological content,obvious traces of and ties to earlier models are almost prerequisites . The Japanesegovernor's building in Taipei can then be read as a concrete symbol of Japan'sderivative Westernization, its inability to project an unambiguous identity as a coloniz-ing master, for perhaps never in the global colonial history a colonizing power had toappropriate a foreign design as the embodiment of its authority .

After 1949, this building became the presidential office of the Nationalist govern-ment (Figure 7) . After the death of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, a memorialhall was built almost next to this Victorian Gothic Revivalist structure . Chinese antiquarianism was once again the solution to the problem of design ; but in this case therewere compelling ideological reasons for this solution . The design of the memorial hallwas clearly a simulation of the Altar to Heaven complex [Tiantan] in the southeastern

Figure 7 .

Former Japanese governor's building in Taipei .

Figure 8 .

Memorial Hall for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek .

suburb of Peking . In this complex, the most significant structure is the Hall of Prayerfor a Prosperous Year, where past dynastic rulers or Sons of Heaven performed theirannual rituals to heaven and earth . This Hall is a triple-roof (symbolizing heaven, earth,and men) circular structure raised on a flat marble terrace surrounded by three con-centric levels of 360 white stone balustrades ; bright blue tiles cover the roofs and agilded ball is mounted on the top . The circular structure on a round platform enclosedby a square wall - two basic forms observed by the other structures of the complex -are concrete symbols of the traditional notions of heaven and earth (circular tian andsquare di) . By performing rituals to heaven in this Hall, the imperial ruler was cast inthe role of the only and ultimate mediator of the heavenly forces . The duplication of theforms, shapes, colors, and even the directions (the imperial north-south axis) of thePrayer Hall for the Generalissimo's memorial hall is so blatantly ideological that thepoint needs no further belaboring (figures 8 and 9) . But besides evoking the imperialaura for one of the last strong men of traditional Chinese patriarchal politics, thereplication of the Prayer Hall also contains another ideological implication which onecan read into it : the legitimacy of the Nationalist government and its claim, long afterthe defeat of 1949, as the sole legitimate ruler of all China. In this sense, one can evenargue that the Generalissimo's memorial hall is configuration of nostalgia and myth

Figure 9 .

The statue of Chiang inside the memorial hall is an imitation of the Lincoln statuein Washington, D .C .

Figure 10 . The music hall (left) and the theater (right) adjacent to the Chiang Kai-shekmemorial hall are also antiquarian duplications .

(Figure 10) . But in the face of the rapid liberalization and democratization of Taiwan inrecent years, which includes one incident of vandalizing the exterior walls of thememorial hall by a prominent member of the opposition, the authoritarianism exudedby this antiquarian transplantation is certainly gone, though the hall will probably servein the future as a memorial of the government's authoritarian past .

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Glossary

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