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Abstract The paper takes the classical poetry of Taiwan during the period of Japanese colonial rule as the research material. Employing cross-comparison and comprehensive analysis of the texts of the classical literature of Taiwan, the materials of the history of Taiwanese fine arts as well as the materials of the history of Taiwan, the paper explores and constructs the world of the traditional Taiwanese fine arts under Japanese colonial rule. Specifically, the paper presents traditional Taiwanese literati' s appreciation approaches, promotion methods and commercial activities of the arts of calligraphy and painting from the 1920s to the 1930s. In recent years, the development of the Taiwanese art as well as the construction of the art history of Taiwan during the Japanese rule have received considerable attention. Nevertheless, scholars mostly focused on writers and works of the modern art. This relative lack of evaluation and discussion on the traditional arts of calligraphy and painting during that period resulted in less attention given to the identities of artists participating in the traditional calligraphy and painting activities along with their roles in the East Asian art circle.
Based on the above context, the paper firstly takes the Zheng family in Beimen, Hsinchu as an example, and points out that since the Qing Dynasty, with regard to traditional Taiwanese fine arts, local families had been investing in and constructing a set of rich and abundant cultural capital in the process of amassing their political, social and economic capital. After Taiwan entered the Japanese colonial rule in 1895, this set of cultural capital with rich and abundant energy became not only the foundation for continuation of the classical literature of Taiwan under the Japanese rule, but also the reason why the traditional fine arts in Taiwan under the Japanese rule were able to attract a group of people sharing the same artistic interest outside the system, and developed in the cultural resource network of a literati group. It also gave this group of literati opportunities to have dialogues regarding viewing, appreciation, and aesthetic evaluation with the Japanese calligraphers, painters, and officials in Taiwan in the same period. Secondly, through analysis of the classical poems in The Complete Works of Zhang Chun-fu, Notes in the Secret Study — Diary of Zhang Chun-fu, Collected Calligraphy and Painting Works in Shoumo House, as well as the reports of painting and calligraphy works of Zhang Chun-fu in Taiwan Daily News, the paper unearths Zhang' s calligraphy and painting collections, his appreciation and reviews of calligraphy works, as well as his operation techniques of the traditional art market. The paper indicates that Zhang Chun-fu, with a Sinology background, was acting as an art broker that had professional knowledge in calligraphy and painting arts, his own operation method in the art market, and the ability to find channels of purchase and sales and collectors of artworks, and his own standards of appreciation to further promoted them. Finally, a large number of classical poems in The Complete Works of Wang Shao-tao and the essays of " Wind and Moon" and "Views on Paintings of the Qing Dynasty" pointed out the network and socialization standards of Wang Shao-tao with the literati, calligraphers and painters, as well as his artistic proposition of "temperament of literati, character of literati" . In addition, observing and analyzing the inscription poems written by Wang for the 5th Taiwan Art Exhibition, which were published in Taiwan Daily News in 1931, alongside his paintings exhibited after his returning to Taiwan, the paper points out that these poems created by him for the paintings were actually the Wang' s efforts to communicate with and connect different artistic forms. The paper suggests that Wang Shao-tao, having received bilingual education and with his background of appreciation and commercial evaluation of artworks, made himself an art director. He managed to create a space that competed with the atmosphere advocated by the new fine arts education, and establish his own creation direction and method to address old fine arts’ transition to the new fine arts.
Through the above examples, it can be found that the traditional fine arts of Taiwan under the Japanese rule actually had its multimodal development. It was one of the areas where debates were sparked on the values of the old and new cultures following Japan’s colonization of Taiwan. It was also a new space where the East Asian traditional calligraphy and painting arts experienced a turning point in the 19th~20th centuries. Undoubtedly, discovering actual existence of art works would hinder discussions and studies of the history of art or the history of fine arts. But to explore, approach and understand it from the cultural identifications and diverse artistic creation abilities possessed by the participants of art activities, and different aspects such as the historical time and space where the works of art still existed, ideals these participants projected on their works, their efforts and mindsets to continue and expand their artistic activities, a new way could be introduced to understand the traditional art of Taiwan, revealing the competitions and integration of diverse coexistence of different art activities Japanese occupation of Taiwan.
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