$47.78
- Softcover
- 171 x 257 mm
- 168 pages
- Chinese, Japanese, English
- ISBN 9784865412147
- Oct 2025
In 1895, Japan colonized Taiwan, establishing more than two hundred Shinto shrines across the island and enforcing a policy of linguistic and cultural assimilation. In 1945, after the Republic of China took over Taiwan, the government demolished the shrines, rebuilt them as Martyrs’ Shrines, and imposed martial law that lasted thirty-eight years.
In 1987, martial law was lifted. In 1991, the three major repressive laws were abolished. In 1992, an amendment to Article 100 of the Criminal Code was passed, putting an end to the prosecution of Taiwanese people for their thoughts and speech.
Historically, Taiwan has always been a frontier of geopolitical powers. From torii to pailou, successive regimes and waves of migration have shaped the island’s cultural diversity, while also deepening its divisions over national identity.
The Martyrs’ Shrine is one of Taiwan’s most conflicted landscapes. It claims to honor the “loyal and the brave,” yet it rises upon the ruins of the shrines it destroyed. It prays in the name of the nation, yet struggles to confront the island’s own historical trauma.
In Becoming・Taiwanese, photographer Liang-Pin Tsao revisits these “sacred sites of national mourning,” using archival images, contemporary photography, and performative gestures to question the relational tension between the dead and the living, the sacred and the profane, autocracy and democracy, and the cognitive and emotional conflicts embedded within.
As the book unfolds, readers step into the overlapping shadows of two memories: one of faith imposed by colonizers, the other of loyalty disciplined by rulers. When the foldout opens, the overlapping of these dual memories renders the Martyrs’ Shrine a suspended space — at once a site of remembrance and of forgetting, belonging to history yet still unfinished, much like the ongoing process of becoming Taiwanese.
Liang-Pin Tsao
Born in Hsinchu, based in Taipei. His practice spans artistic projects, organizational operation, and public services. In 2016, he founded Lightbox Photo Library, dedicated to preserving, researching, and promoting Taiwanese photography. In 2025, he launched the first Taiwan International Photography Festival (TIPF) to advance the democratization of art. His photobooks include Sojourn (2015, self-published) and Becoming・Taiwanese (2025, Akaakasha, Japan).
