일본통치시기 타이완문화협회의 계몽영화운동 연구(1926-1933) - 문협 활동사진부와 메이타이단의 순회영사회를 중심으로

Abstract

This study rediscovers and reevaluates the significance of the Motion Picture Troupe of Taiwanese Cultural Association and Meitaituan(Beautiful Taiwan Troupe), a Taiwanese enlightenment organization under Japanese rule, and discusses how the troupe used movies as a tool for the social enlightenment movement. Taiwan, which was ceded to the Empire of Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese War, experienced a rapid colonization process due to the Governor General’s policy of subjugation of native Taiwanese. Sponsored by the colonial government, Takamatsu Toyojiro and Taiwan Patriotic Women’s Association used film as a tool to justify the legitimacy of Japanese colonial rule. By the 1920s, Taiwanese progressive intellectuals had attempted to petition to the Japanese Imperial Assembly for the political autonomy of the Taiwanese people, but they were eventually refused. With this setback, in 1921, Taiwan Cultural Association was founded under the banner of self-discipline and self-reliance, and an enlightenment movement to arouse Taiwanese national awareness on a national scale. Tsai Pei-huo, a core member of the Taiwan Cultural Association, well understood that Taiwan’s geopolitical specificity, ethnic-linguistic diversity, and high illiteracy rate cause many limitations in the enlightenment movement, and founded the Motion Picture Troupe under Taiwan Cultural Association, and actively used films for mobile film screening lectures. The troupe, which was born in this way in 1926, served to inform the Taiwanese people of the importance of gender equality, scientific thinking, and modern education through a nationwide tour film screening lecture, and also contributed to fostering Taiwanese national consciousness. As the mobile film screening lectures gained nationwide support, the scope of activities of the mobile film troupe expanded, but as the ideological conflicts between the left and right parties within the Taiwan Cultural Association intensified, the leadership was divided, and the troupe was reorganized as a independent group, Meitaituan. Despite the short period of the troupe’s activity, Meitaituan left significant legacies in Taiwanese cultural history. In this study, the history of Tsai Pei-huo’s troupes and influences will be introduced and analyzed in detail through hither-to neglected archival records in newspapers and magazines.