The Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule

The Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule
Sugar Industry pavilion
Overview
BIE-classUnrecognized exposition
NameThe Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule
Building(s)Sugar industry pavilion
Visitorsover 1 million
Organized byNakagawa Kenzō and Hiroyoshi Hirasuka
Participant(s)
Countries4
Location
CountryJapanese Taiwan
CityTaihoku (now Taipei)
Timeline
Opening10 October 1935
Closure28 November 1935
Contemporaneous bird's eye maps by Hatsusaburō Yoshida showing clockwise from top Ximending area, the larger bottom panel the National Taiwan Museum area, bottom right Daitōtei and lastly Beitou with a hot spring shown
Dated (Japanese Nengō date format) rubber stamp of Pavilion of Sugar Industry in Formosa Memorial Exhibition

The Taiwan Exposition: In Commemoration of the First Forty Years of Colonial Rule was an exhibition held in Taihoku Prefecture in 1935, the 10th year of Hirohito's reign, to mark 40 years of the establishment of Japanese Formosa (now Taiwan).[1]

The exhibition ran from 10 October 1935 for 50 days until 28 November, and was attended by over a million people.[2] The Governor-General Nakagawa Kenzō and Director of General Affairs Hiroyoshi Hirasuka presided over the exhibition.[3]

Exhibition sites

The organisers were unable to find a suitable single site for the exhibition,[1] and originally selected two sites in Zhongshan District, with a third in the more remote Beitou hot springs area.[2] But, following concerns that this was too focused in the city centre one in Daitōtei was added,[4]

Zhongshan Hall area, Ximending

The first area was in front of the recently completed Taipei Zhongshan Hall,[1] Ximending, hosted the large ceremonies,[1] showed Taiwanese agriculture, forestry, railway construction, mining, sugar and telecoms; displays from Japan, Korea and Manchuria and Japanese businesses including Mitsui & Co. and Nippon Steel Corp..[2] It was 4.29 hectares big.[4]

There were displays from Formosa itself, Japan, Korea and Manchuria.[2]

  • Aerial view of Ximending, Taihoku
    Aerial view of Ximending, Taihoku
  • Contemporaneous bird's eye map of Ximending by Hatsusaburō Yoshida[4]
    Contemporaneous bird's eye map of Ximending by Hatsusaburō Yoshida[4]

National Taiwan Museum area

The "First Cultural Pavilion" was housed in what is now the National Taiwan Museum.[4] It was 7.93 hectares big.[4]

  • Aerial view of National Taiwan Museum area
    Aerial view of National Taiwan Museum area

Beitou hot springs

A site away from Taipei in the Beitou hot springs area was used to promote tourist attractions in Taiwan and plans for Datun National Park (now Yangmingshan National Park) and was housed in a "'Grass Mountain Exhibition Hall".[2]

Daitōtei

The first two areas were both central Taipei, which led to local gentry making a request for a third exhibition area elsewhere in Taipei, in Daitōtei (now Dadaocheng).[4]

This area hosted the "South Pavilion" which showed products from Siam (Thailand), the Philippines province and the Fujian Province, along with information about plans for Japan's future expansion.[4]

Entertainments intended to attract Taiwanese people to this section included the opera performer Mei Lanfang, a Mazu parade and a Peking opera group.[4]

Attendance

It is estimated that over a million people attended the fair, with 2,750,000 individual visits to the several exhibition halls.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Allen, Joseph R (27–30 December 2005). "Exhibiting the Colony, Suggesting the Nation: The Taiwan Exposition, 1935" (PDF). Modern Language Association Convention 2005. Washington, D.C.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Taiwan's Most Prominent Exposition". Digital Taiwan – Culture & Nature. Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  3. ^ Phillips, Steven E. (2003). Between Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950. Stanford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780804744577. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Special Exhibition｜Back in their times: a visual history of Taiwan from the 1930s to the 1960s", Memorial Foundation of 228, Taipei, Taiwan, 14 February 2021, retrieved 10 January 2024
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