Outcasts of Empire: Japan's Rule on Taiwan's "Savage Border," 1874-1945 (Asia Pacific Modern Book 16)

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit [www.luminosoa.org](https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/10.1525/luminos.41/) to learn more. __Outcasts of Empire__ unveils the causes and consequences of capitalism’s failure to “batter down all Chinese walls” in modern Taiwan. Adopting micro- and macrohistorical perspectives, Paul D. Barclay argues that the interpreters, chiefs, and trading-post operators who mediated state-society relations on Taiwan’s “savage border” during successive Qing and Japanese regimes rose to prominence and faded to obscurity in concert with a series of “long nineteenth century” global transformations. Superior firepower and large economic reserves ultimately enabled Japanese statesmen to discard mediators on the border and sideline a cohort of indigenous headmen who played both sides of the fence to maintain their chiefly status. Even with reluctant “allies” marginalized, however, the colonial state lacked sufficient resources to integrate Taiwan’s indigenes into its disciplinary apparatus. The colonial state therefore created the Indigenous Territory, which exists to this day as a legacy of Japanese imperialism, local initiatives, and the global commodification of culture. A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit (https://www.luminosoa.org/site/books/10.1525/luminos.41/) www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Outcasts of Empire unveils the causes and consequences of capitalism’s failure to “batter down all Chinese walls” in modern Taiwan. Adopting micro- and macrohistorical perspectives, Paul D. Barclay argues that the interpreters, chiefs, and trading-post operators who mediated state-society relations on Taiwan’s “savage border” during successive Qing and Japanese regimes rose to prominence and faded to obscurity in concert with a series of “long nineteenth century” global transformations. Superior firepower and large economic reserves ultimately enabled Japanese statesmen to discard mediators on the border and sideline a cohort of indigenous headmen who played both sides of the fence to maintain their chiefly status. Even with reluctant “allies” marginalized, however, the colonial state lacked sufficient resources to integrate Taiwan’s indigenes into its disciplinary apparatus. The colonial state therefore created the Indigenous Territory, which exists to this day as a legacy of Japanese imperialism, local initiatives, and the global commodification of culture. "Outcasts of Empire unveils the causes and consequences of capitalism's failure to "batter down all Chinese walls" in modern Taiwan. Adopting micro- and macrohistorical perspectives, Paul D. Barclay argues that the interpreters, chiefs, and trading-post operators who mediated state-society relations on Taiwan's "savage border" during successive Qing and Japanese regimes rose to prominence and faded to obscurity in concert with a series of "long nineteenth century" global transformations. Superior firepower and large economic reserves ultimately enabled Japanese statesmen to discard these mediators and sideline a cohort of indigenous headmen who played both sides of the fence to maintain their chiefly status. Even with these reluctant "allies" marginalized, however, the colonial state lacked sufficient resources to integrate Taiwan's indigenes into its disciplinary apparatus. The colonial state therefore created the Indigenous Territory, which exists to this day as a legacy of Japanese imperialism, local initiatives, and the global commodification of culture."--Back cover "Outcasts of Empire probes the limits of modern nation-state sovereignty by positioning colonial Taiwan at the intersection of the declining Qing and ascending Japanese empires. Paul D. Barclay chronicles the lives and times of interpreters, chiefs, and trading-post operators along the far edges of the expanding international system, an area known as Taiwan's "savage border." In addition, he boldly asserts the interpenetration of industrial capitalism and modern ethnic identities. By the 1930s, three decades into Japanese imperial rule, mechanized warfare and bulk commodity production rendered superfluous a whole class of mediators--among them, Kondo "the Barbarian" Katsusaburo, Pan Bunkiet, and Iwan Robao. Even with these unreliable allies safely cast aside, the Japanese empire lacked the resources to integrate indigenous Taiwan into the rest of the colony. The empire, therefore, created the Indigenous Territory, which exists to this day as a legacy of Japanese imperialism, local initiatives, and the global commoditization of culture"--Provided by publisher.