The UCLA Taiwan Studies Lectureship (TSL), established in 2014, is a joint initiative of the Asia Pacific Center and the Division of Humanities supported
by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. The program facilitates academic
exchanges between UCLA and Taiwan. The TSL funds courses, curriculum development, public events, and research grants for faculty and graduate students. The initial phase (2014-2017) of the TSL focuses on connections between contemporary Taiwan and the classical tradition in which it is rooted. The second phase, beginning in 2017, expands to examine Taiwan’s culture and identity in historical, global, and transnational contexts. On October 9-10, 2017, the first conference in the second phase of TSL “Musha 1930: History, Memory. Culture” was held. This international conference explored the Musha Incident, a violent conflict between the indigenous Seediq and the Japanese colonial powers in Taiwan. Through a series of lectures, panels, and discussion, the conference explored the lingering impact of this conflict and how it has been constructed in contemporary Taiwanese cultural memory. The event brought together writers, filmmakers, historians and cultural studies scholars to discuss the historical impact of the Musha Incident.
On the first day of this conference, the Director of UCLA Asia Pacific Center Min Zhou and Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures Michael Berry gave opening remarks to point out the significance of the studies of Musha Incident and UCLA Dean of Humanities David Schaberg made a welcome remark for all scholars, writers and filmmaker in the conference. Dakis Pawan and Bakan Pawan, who are Seediq themselves, delivered an opening dialogue to explore the meaning of Musha Incident. Dakis Pawan graduated from the department of Industrial Education in National Taiwan Normal University and was a full-time teacher in Mechanics at the Puli Industrial Vocational Senior High School from 1978-2004. His publications include “Truth of Bale: The Historical Truth and Notes Taken Following the Shots of the Movie Seediq Bale” and “To See the Truth Again: The People of Seediq and the Musha Incident”. His cousin Bakan Pawan is a graduate student in National Chengchi University in the Department of Ethnology. She has been researching “The Musha Incident and Mona Rudo’s Family Genealogy” and also served as a participant and research assistant for the “Indigenous People-Major Historical Events”. Both of them gave important perspectives and explanations for Musha Incident. Professor and the writer of the novel “Dana Sakura” Deng Shian-yang and the director of its TV miniseries Jen Wan also joined the discussion. A short documentary of the scenes behind the screening of “Dana Sakura” was played to present more details about Musha Incident.
The topics of day two’s conference included “Historical Memories of Musha”, “Literary Memories of Musha” and “Cultural Memories of Musha”. Professor of History at Lafayette College Paul D. Barclay, the PhD candidate in the Department of History at UCLA Toulouse-Antonin Roy, Professor of East Asian Literature and Culture Department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Robert Tierney explored the Musha Incident in the History of Tgdaya-Japanese Relations, the Impact of Early Colonial Pacification Campaigns and Bodies and Violence in the Musha Incident. With regard to the Literary Memories of Musha, assistant professor in the Foreign Languages and Literature Department in National Tsing Hua University Chien Heng Wu introduced the contemporary perspective, the philosophy of walking, and related ethical matters in “Remains of Life” in Musha, Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University Leo Ching discussed the Intimate Violence in the Musha Incident and Professor of Literature at UCSD Ping-hui Liao talked about “Satou Haruo on Musha and Beyond”. As for Cultural Memories of Musha ,Professor Darryl Sterk at Lingnan University expounded “The Politics of the Translation of Seediq Bale” and Professor Kuei-fen Chiu at National Chung Hsing University introduced “The Musha Incident on Digital Platforms”.
The last day of this conference introduced more historical memories of Musha Incident. Dakis Pawan, Bakan Pawan and the teacher and researcher at the Indigenous Theology Teaching and Research Center at the Kushan Seminary Kumu Tapas talked about personal experience with their ancestors and understanding of this incident, which provided more insights and provoked further discussion. The historian and filmmaker from Puli of Nantou Shian Yang Deng delivered a closing keynote speech “Using the Savages to Control the Savages: The Causes and Aftermath of the Musha Incident”. The speech was followed by a closing roundtable discussion, all these scholars, filmmaker, writers and historians along with other participants conducted panel discussion, sharing various perspectives in what they have learnt in the 3-day conference. They decided to collect all speakers’ theses and publish them into books in Chinese and English, in hope with raising more people’s awareness of the significance and various interpretations of Wusha Incident. The conference successfully facilitated academic exchanges between USA and Taiwan, drawing both the expertise of many scholars in USA and the contributions of Taiwanese experts in Wusha Incident and further promoting Asia Pacific Studies communities to share their research interests in Taiwan studies.
