Quand la nudité féminine dit la sauvagerie : la représentation des aborigènes taiwanais dans la photographie coloniale japonaise (1895-1945)

Abstract

The representation of bare-bodied Taiwanese aboriginal women was an essential theme in Japanese colonial photography. This article examines how Japanese anthropologists at the end of the nineteenth century–the main photographers of the aborigines–created photographic norms through their framing and placement of female bodies. It shows how these photographic themes were inspired by eighteenth-century Chinese chronicles of Taiwan and examines their influence on later generations of photographers, whose works were published in great numbers on postcards during the colonial period and circulated both within the Japanese empire and beyond. Together, these images constructed an image of a savage and timeless Taiwan on the margins of the Japanese empire.

Keywords

• Taiwan
• Japan
• Colonial period
• Photography
• Chronicles
• Female body