The unredeemed nations: the Taiwanese film KANO and its trans-border reception

ABSTRACT

Taiwanese film KANO recounts the passage of a mixed-race baseball team to Japan’s Koshien Tournament during the colonial era of the 1930s. Its release evoked in both Taiwan and Japan critical responses in view of its rosy depiction of colonial modernity. Through analysing the film’s text and reviews in both Taiwan and Japan, we identify KANO as a “post-national” cinematic event. Its inviting nostalgic invocation of Japanese colonialism at the civilian level has launched divergent discourses on colonial legacies in the contemporary re/making of national identities, reflecting on the post-colonial socio-cultural conditions facing both Taiwan and Japan. We found that KANO in Taiwan instigated a re-examination of the state’s role in crafting the foundational myth of baseball as a “national” sport. Furthermore, the film brought on schemes of othering in which two national others were distinguished to manifest Taiwan subjectivity: Japanese colonialism versus Chinese nationalism. On the other hand, KANO in Japan was stripped of its colonial connotation. Its honouring of juvenile devotion to baseball was employed as a psychic introjection of Japanese-ness, which many considered losing in the globalizing social milieu.

KEYWORDS:

• Baseball
• Japanese colonialism
• Kano
• post-national cinema
• Taiwanese film
• the Taiwan/Japan ties

Notes on contributors

Shih-che Tang teaches at the Department of Communication, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. His research focuses on issues related with globalization as a cultural process and media theories.

Mitsuhiro Fujimaki teaches at Department of Communication Studies, Ferris University, Japan. His research concerns an intersection between museums and civil society.

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Notes

1. According to Ching (2001), Japan's annexation of Taiwan was initially motivated by its perception as a nation capable of undertaking the task of colonialism, rather than out of economic necessity. Nevertheless, despite creating a great financial burden for the domestic government at the start, Japanese colonialism in Taiwan by the 1920s showed signs of success and could justify the cause, since Japanese capitalism was in its monopolistic stage.

2. Striving for national sovereignty of Taiwan originated from the Taiwanese elite's petition asking for the establishment of a parliament during the colonial era. Between 1921 and 1934, the Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament petitioned the Japanese government 15 times. It argued that under the principles of the Japanese constitution, the colonial governor-general should not exercise exclusive executive and legislative powers. Elective representatives from Taiwan's populace were necessary. The movement gained widespread support from the natives and liberal-minded Japanese politicians and intellectuals. It is also considered the emblematic rise of the Taiwanese nativist movement. See, Chen (2013) and Ching (2001).