This dissertation assesses the impact of sustainable development and livelihood strategies on the indigenous communities of Maolin National Scenic Area (NSA) in Taiwan. I examine the relationship...Show moreThis dissertation assesses the impact of sustainable development and livelihood strategies on the indigenous communities of Maolin National Scenic Area (NSA) in Taiwan. I examine the relationship between the directives of indigenous policy relevant and the sustainability indicators for small islands proposed by Jesinghaus (2002) to answer the leading question: What is the influence of sustainable tourism strategies present in the CIP policies on the Maolin NSA indigenous communities in the matters of land conservation practices, heritage protection and risk management? This dissertation offers two leading hypothesis: [1] the sustainable development indicators for Maolin are the same as for all Taiwan, [2] the sustainable development strategies should not be evaluated per se, but only in relation to the particular case study. The aim of this dissertation is to present how the indigenous policies inspired by the Taiwan's cultural transition, indigenous rights movement and idea of sustainable development influenced Maolin NSA. Synthesizing the most relevant theories in indigenous tourism studies and sustainable development studies, this research attempts to show Maolin’s case study in a broad context. The most important contribution of this thesis is explaining new tendencies in Taiwanese inbound tourism on the example of recently established protected area. Using Maolin NSA case analysis, this research explored the role of the indigenous policy implementation in the process of protected area establishment and management. This dissertation offers an insight into the latest tendencies in indigenous tourism development and management in Taiwan.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis explores how discourse of heritage has been constructed in Taiwan, under the great influence of the world-leading heritage organization, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational,...Show moreThis thesis explores how discourse of heritage has been constructed in Taiwan, under the great influence of the world-leading heritage organization, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and its affiliated international organizations. This thesis does not attempt to give a single definition of the heritage discourse being constructed, knowing there is no one discourse about “the heritage”, but focuses on the mechanism for making discourse and the power relations that underpin it. This thesis expects to answer three main questions as follows: to what extent can the definitions and values of heritage constructed by UNESCO be applied in the context of Taiwan? What actors can be identified in the process of discourse making? What are their motivations and interests? The discussion will be developed from three aspects: 1) the changes in heritage categories in the Taiwanese heritage preservation law, Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, 2) the reproduction of World Heritage system in Taiwan, and 3) the heritage discourse and power-relation shown in the text of the international declaration launched in Taiwan, Taipei Declaration for Asian Industrial Heritage (2012).Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis has focused on the transition of the 798 Dashanzi factory from 'artist village' to 'art zone' to show the positive and negative effects of the implementation of creative industries in...Show moreThis thesis has focused on the transition of the 798 Dashanzi factory from 'artist village' to 'art zone' to show the positive and negative effects of the implementation of creative industries in the Chinese urban context. I traced its evolution from its origins as an electronics factory, to an appropriation of urban land by artists and workers of the creative field, to an institutionally-accepted and promoted centre for 'creativity' and innovation. This evolution is deeply intertwined with socio-economic factors which the Chinese government supported as vehicles of (urban) development since Deng's 1978 'Open-door Policy': the dismantling of the danwei (work unit) structure; urbanization; the emergence of a real-estate market, and the rise of an urban upper-middle class. In addition, since the mid-2000s and following the explosion of Chinese contemporary art in the global art market, the government has supported the implementation of Culture Creative Industries as a strategy to build Chinese soft-power and capitalizing on intellectual property. If, on the one hand, these policies had indirect positive effects, such as the preservation of former industrial structures and the incrementation of the local economy, on the other hand they had dramatic consequences on the social environments which were subjected to them. In particular, in the case of 798, the artist community that gave rise to the artist village has been dismembered in favour of commercialization and gentrification of the area. Contemporarily to 798, the Caochangdi artist village sprang up as an urban village on the fringes of Beijing and has constituted itself as an independent reality, taking advantage of the semi-regimented rural status and falling into the cracks of Beijing's residential administration system. Thanks to its semi-illegal configuration, it has managed both to take advantage of the new creative policies implementing local economy, and to maintain the local community somewhat untouched by top-down urban rehabilitation. By adopting a perspective from the theories of place-making and place-branding, the comparison among the two artist villages and the analysis of their transformations helped me to stress the importance of the role of communities in the management of these areas.Show less
