CEAS Lecture Series ft. Jason McGrath

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT AND WILL NOT BE LIVE STREAMING.

LECTURE ABSTRACT

The twelve-episode TV series Seqalu—Formosa 1867, broadcast in 2021 on Taiwan Public Television under the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, exemplifies the complexity of the theme of indigeneity in the contemporary narration of Taiwanese nationalism. The TV series offers a kind of origin story of a diverse, inclusive Taiwanese identity focused on a fictional half-indigenous virgin-martyr figure inserted into the narration of actual historical ethnic and geopolitical conflicts centered on south Taiwan in the late nineteenth century. Partly through a comparison of the TV series with the 2016 historical novel on which it was based, written by genetic-scientist-turned-politician-turned-historical-novelist Chen Yao-Chang, this talk will examine the cultural-affective politics of both, particularly through themes of autochthony articulated through characterization, landscape, and flora and fauna. The fictional half-aboriginal Formosan princess, the central figure of both the novel and the TV show whose martyrdom is seemingly discordantly rendered through Christian tropes in the TV series, becomes an “avatar of Taiwan” who simultaneously marks off Taiwan’s autonomy while offering the imprimatur of indigeneity to Han Chinese residents of the island. In this way, the series confronts and navigates a fundamental paradox of settler colonialism in the case of Taiwan—which in a sense becomes explicitly settler-colonial precisely when it asserts its sovereignty as fundamentally separate from China, requiring the cultural negotiation of that heritage in a way that seeks to simultaneously honor indigeneity while also appropriating it for the purposes of contemporary Taiwanese nationalism.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jason McGrath is Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where he also serves on the graduate faculty of Moving Image, Media, and Sound Studies. His books include Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Criticism in the Market Age (Stanford University Press, 2008) and Chinese Film: Realism and Convention from the Silent Era to the Digital Age (University of Minnesota Press, 2022).

CEAS LECTURE SERIES

The CEAS Lecture Series is an initiative that advances the University of Chicago's Center for East Asian Studies' mission in fostering dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration. This annual public lecture series presents eminent scholars who concentrate on the study of East Asia in a variety of disciplines. For more information on the series, follow the link here: https://ceas.uchicago.edu/events/ceas-lecture-series

SPONSORSHIP

This event is co-sponsored with the University of Chicago Library and the Department of Cinema and Media Studies.

PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEOGRAPHY

Please note that there may be photography taken during this educational event by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies for archival and publicity purposes. By attending this event, participants are confirming their permission to be photographed and the University of Chicago’s right to use, distribute, copy, and edit the recordings in any form of media for non-commercial, educational purposes, and to grant rights to third parties to do any of the foregoing.