“Cultural Violence”: A Study of the Visual Power of Taiwan Postcards during the Japanese Colonial Period

Abstract

This study examines the colonial-era photographic postcards depicting Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples during Japanese rule (1895–1945), exploring how these visual materials contributed to the ideological construction and everyday reproduction of imperial authority. Far from being innocent souvenirs or neutral ethnographic records, these postcards functioned as powerful tools of colonial visuality, embedding Indigenous bodies and cultures within a larger apparatus of governance, classification, and symbolic violence. Drawing on postcolonial theory, visual semiotics, and Foucauldian discourse analysis, the research analyzes postcards produced and circulated between the 1910s and 1930s. It traces their production from academic anthropology and colonial bureaucracy to commercial photography studios, and investigates how images of portraits, labor scenes, rituals, and domestic life were staged, framed, and captioned to reflect and reinforce dominant narratives of primitivity, exoticism, and modernization. These representations shaped not only how Indigenous peoples were seen but also how colonial society imagined itself—progressive, modern, and civilizing. The study reveals that these postcards enacted a form of “everyday visual violence,” naturalizing unequal power relations through seemingly mundane images. By examining the aesthetics, production mechanisms, and circulation of these materials across expositions, educational settings, and private correspondence, this paper argues that colonial postcards were key instruments in the making of a shared imperial imaginary. Ultimately, this research contributes to broader conversations on visual colonialism, the politics of representation, and the lingering effects of historical visual regimes in contemporary cultural memory.