The Socio-Ecological Transformation of the Early Colonial Taiwan Rice Improvement Projects

Principle Investigator：Hua-Hsuan Chu

This project examines how the measures that Taiwan Sotokufu adopted to “improve” local rice in early colonial years initiated the long-term socio-ecological transformation of Taiwan towards its agricultural modernization, with particular focus on the impacts of the combination of market economy, commodification, colonial governance, and the materiality of rice. With insights of fruitful empirical studies and efforts to theorize the environment in capitalism, this project hopes to deepen the discussion of the making of “fictitious commodities” that Karl Polanyi forged in his classic work. The archival research about rice drying and classification is in progress for this topic.