Romantic Love and Free Marriage in Taiwan under Japanese Rule: Writings from Taiwan Youth, 1920-1921

Abstract

One of the remarkable effects of the appointment of Den Kenjirō 田健治郎 (1855-1930) as the first civilian Governor-General of Taiwan in 1919 was the establishment of the first Taiwanese-owned newspapers and journals, which would soon become important platforms for the emerging feminist movement in Taiwan. At the same time, student participation in the May Fourth movement was in full force in mainland China, and in Japan, feminist intellectuals passionately debated the “woman question” and its role in the development of the Japanese nation-state. In my research, I consider the arguments put forth by Taiwanese feminists for a system of free marriage 自由結婚 (ziyou jiehun/jiyū kekkon) based on romantic love 戀愛/恋愛 (lian’ai/ren’ai) between 1920 and 1921 in the Taiwanese journal Taiwan Youth. Rather than drawing comparisons between general feminist discourses in China, Japan and Taiwan, which all were influenced to a great extent by globally circulating ideas about gender and the emancipation of women, I suggest taking love and marriage as a lens through which to understand how Taiwan Youth writers simultaneously critiqued traditional Chinese practices and beliefs while looking to Japan and the West as examples of modernity. I argue that for Taiwan Youth writers, emphasizing the spiritual, transcendental nature of love in relation to marriage enabled them to juxtapose a modern ideal with a retrogressive past and express dissatisfaction with their colonial condition. In doing so, Taiwan Youth writers marked a distinct break from their Chinese roots while embracing an ideal offered by Western and Japanese models of modernity, a move that reflects their perception of Taiwanese identity and the precarious nature of colonial Taiwan’s relationship to China, Japan and the West at the time.