The Research of the 'Commission for the Investigation of Traditional Customs in Taiwan'

- 24 THE RESEARCH OF THE 'COMMISSION FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF TRADITIONAL CUSTOMS G? TAIWAN' By Ramon H. Myers* Contrary to the rapid progress made in Ch'ing political studies, Ch'ing social and economic studies have progressed at a snail's pace. This is indeed a lamentable situation and one which deserves to be corrected. This brief essay serves not as a whip to goad the profession in taking up its proper duties but merely provides some information which hopefully a handful of scholars will find of sufficient interest to take up the challenge. I describe the activities of the Rinji Taiwan kyûkan chôsakai (The Temporary Commission for the Investigation of Traditional Customs in Taiwan; henceforth referred to simply as the Commission) and evaluate several of its principal publications. True, most scholars have long focussed their research upon social and economic conditions * The author is Professor of Economics and History, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. Tarn grateful for substantive comments by Professors Edward Dreyer and Thomas Metzger on an early draft of this essay. I bear the responsibility for the final interpretations advanced. - 25 of mainland China rather than Taiwan. Yet the vast storehouse of materials published by the Commission can most certainly increase our understanding of the social and economic foundations not only, of a remote frontier area like Taiwan but of the heartland of the empire itself. The Commission was the brain child of Goto Shimpei, the brilliant head of the Civil Affairs Department (minseibu) under Kodama Gentaro, Governor -general of Taiwan from 1888 to 1906. Goto expressed his reasons for why such a Commission should be established in a series of articles for the Tokyo nichi-nichi shimbun (The Tokyo Daily News). Goto pointed out that during the first five years of Japanese control of Taiwan only marginal gains had been achieved; for a real break-through to occur, new organizations would have to be created, or else Japan's colonial management of the island might end in total failure. The administration had conceived of long-range plans to develop the colony, but these plans could not be initiated without more information about local conditions to determine the response of the Chinese and aboriginal tribes. For this reason Goto urged that a special organization be established to collect the necessary information about the customs 2 and behavior of the people . - 26 Some persons say that it is unnecessary to survey traditional customs with a special organization because many officials have already lived in Taiwan for some time and understand local customs. While it is true that some of these officials are well educated, many are promoted only according to seniority, so we cannot say that those officials who have resided for some time in Taiwan fully understand the local customs. . . . Therefore, we should employ persons with special abilities who can spend considerable time to make a survey of local customs in Taiwan. European scholars compete with one another to study their colonies. They have produced sufficiently good results from their research without recourse to a special organization. If the research findings of these scholars are assembled, great value can be obtained. For this reason Western countries are able to benefit from the research of their scholars for managing their colonies. But these conditions do not exist in Japan. Our people have a habit of accomplishing something without preparation, simply because of their fiery temper. If we do not satisfactorily investigate the local conditions in Taiwan, we will end up making laws without any detailed knowledge of what we are really doing. If that happens, we will have committed a great error in managing our colony. As a final clincher for his argument, Goto urged that the government establish a special organization to support the research activities of Japanese scholars interested in the study of Taiwan and Ch'ing China. Japanese scholars want to study Taiwan, but they do not have any materials to do this. If the government will advance funds to create a special organization to collect such materials, our scholars can then use their abilities to the greatest advantage. Gotô's suggestion was adopted by Kodama, and with the backing of the...