Lecture｜Creating Nature: Landscape Changes of Datun Volcanic Group

Those of us who live in the Taipei Basin may have become accustomed to the fact that Yangmingshan National Park is like a back garden. It is conveniently accessible and provides a rich and diverse experience around us: there are beautiful terrains formed by volcanic processes, and there are “natural” lush The woods are a great place for hiking and a popular spot for flower viewing, as well as fresh wild vegetables. Behind these landscapes are also recorded the tensions of the continuous interaction between rulers and residents in different periods.
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Teacher Hong Guangji took the history of forestry as the starting point for his research, and was inspired by the landscape painting “Near Round Mountain” by Taiwanese painter Guo Xuehu, leading the path of “rethinking nature.” From sorting out the policies of the Qing Dynasty, the process of Han people’s reclamation, to the forest survey and sorting in the Japanese period, to the formulation of relevant rules, and the analytical concept of “capitalization” at that time, to commemorating the opening of the East Palace in Japan The planned afforestation project in Datun Mountain continued until the Pacific War and ended with post-war development.
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Let us follow Teacher Guangji step by step and trace the past of “Yangmingshan National Park”: think about the meaning given by those in power from the perspective of “naming”, and also explore the changes in the regional landscape. Archival historical materials and residents’ feelings are the basis for understanding the policy from multiple perspectives, which imply the planners’ conception, contemporary trends, and residents’ responses, showing the participation, interweaving, and coordination of various forces.
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It is expected that the speaker’s solid and detailed analysis, combined with simple and easy-to-understand explanations, can inspire participants to think about the causal context of time and space, and understand the rich texture of the history of the place we live in from a broader perspective. Step by step, follow the footsteps of Teacher Guangji and trace back the past of “Yangmingshan National Park”. Think about the meaning assigned by those in power from the perspective of “naming”, and explore the changes of the landscape from a regional perspective; from archives and historical materials, and from the feelings of residents, we can understand the multiple aspects of policies and the participation, interweaving and coordination of forces.

🗝️Keywords: Datun Shanhui, ethnic exchanges, reclamation land, mountain forest management, nature and nature, Yangmingshan, National Park, Management Bureau.
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Speaker:
Professor Hong Guangji is an associate professor in the Department of Geography, Environmental Resources, National Taiwan University.
He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Department of Forestry, National Taiwan University, and a PhD from the Department of History of Science, Harvard University, USA. His fields include geography, history of science, environmental history, and technology and social studies.
From rock youth and mountaineer, he currently holds many roles such as university professor, research project leader, journal editor, and curator. He has extensive knowledge and rich life experience, and is willing to promote to the public in a simple and easy-to-understand way. He has long been concerned about the development of forestry in Taiwan, and focuses on the impact of forestry policies on indigenous peoples. While organizing official archives, we also attach importance to the sharing of practical experience by participants, trying to present a three-dimensional perspective of policy/practice, and peel back the cocoons to clarify the context of time and space. He once presided over the three-year “Investigation and Research Project on the History of Forest Management in Yangmingshan National Park” (2021-2023), and has continued the interview program with forestry elders in recent years. He has curated the special exhibition “Forest: The Interface of Power” (National Taiwan Museum, 2023), etc.

Further reading:
Ke Zhiming (2001). “The Fantou Family: Ethnic Politics and Shufan Land Rights in Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty”. Taipei: Institute for Social Research, Academia Sinica.
Guo Xuehu (1928). “Near Round Mountain”. Taipei Fine Arts Museum collection website. https://bit.ly/3Zliyyv (Retrieval date: October 23, 2024).
Chen, Zhihao (2021). “The Grass is Red: A History of the Tea Industry in Yangmingshan National Park, 1830-1990.” New Taipei City: Acropolis Publishing/Hiking Culture; Taipei City: Yangmingshan National Park Management Office.
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Related voices:
[Scholar’s Lecture] Creating “Natural”: Talking about infrastructure research from Guo Xuehu’s “Near Round Mountain”. Zhang Wenxun chaired and Hong Guangji gave the lecture (released by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Center of the National Science and Technology Commission on 2023-07-30)
https://bit.ly/3VjvjZ8
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main vision
Image source: Hatsuzaburo Yoshida “Aerial view of Taipei City in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China”
Collected by: National Taiwan Museum of History. Digital object collector: National Taiwan Museum of History. Creative Commons CC BY-NonCommercial 3.0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC 3.0 TW). Published in “Open Museum” https://l.facebook.com/l.php?https://l.facebook.com/l.php?https://bit.ly/3VokHIr (viewed on 2024/10/22 ).
Designed by: Morito