≪臺灣日日新報≫ 中的 「南支南洋」 與 「臺灣籍民」 報導

Abstract

This article analyzes news reports by the The Taiwan Daily(Taiwan Nitiniti Shinpou) on “South China-South Seas(Nanshi Nanyou)” and “Taiwan Sekimin” and explores the “colonialism” and “regionalism” that appeared in the Japanese colonial government newspaper. My conclusions are as follows: (1) In cooperation with the Government-General of Taiwan's policy of “southern advance” in “South China-South Seas,” The Taiwan Daily reported extensively on these regions in order for Japanese in Taiwan to obtain information on South China and the South Seas. The accumulation of such reports not only transformed Taiwan into a base where Japanese knowledge on “South China-South Seas” was most widespread, but also resulted in closely linking the regions of “South China-South Seas” with Taiwan. (2) The extensive reporting of news on China demonstrated that the Government- General of Taiwan did not adopt a closed policy of severing exchange between Taiwan and mainland China; rather, it guided Taiwanese residents' understanding of China through an active and controlled manner of reportage. For example, newspaper reports on the upheavals in China around the time of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution no doubt served as colonial propaganda by emphasizing the stark contrast between a “peaceful Taiwan” and a “turbulent China.” (3) Reportage in the Japanese-language edition and the Chinese-language edition of The Taiwan Daily was not necessarily the same. As in the case of “new knowledge” on the South Seas, those Taiwanese who could not read Japanese were excluded from a sphere of print culture and knowledge dissemination. Indeed, there were times when the colonial government did not want Taiwanese subjects to learn about discord within the Japanese empire or opposing stances among different political institutions. How the Government-General of Taiwan, under an administrative policy that prioritized Japanese-language over Chinese-language, guided its Taiwanese subjects and its Japanese-language readership is a question that deserves to be further researched.