Abstract
Since the 1970s, when Taiwan was formally integrated into the global capitalist system, the construction industry opened up to international bidding, attracting transnational capital and technical expertise. Subsequently, in the 1990s, legislation permitted the large-scale employment of migrant workers from Southeast Asia. Names of foreign laborers began appearing on construction worker memorials, creating cracks in the dominant narrative of “sacrifice for the nation.” Next to public works monuments extolling the achievements of a singular regime, construction worker memorials offered a glimpse into the multiethnic reality, leaving behind historical materials that shed light on long-overlooked laboring classes. This project analyzes five construction worker memorials inscribed with the names of foreign nationals. These memorials commemorate high-skilled personnel from developed countries and blue-collar Southeast Asian migrant workers. In earlier years, foreign technicians moved across borders for international projects. How are their transient, cross-border labor histories remembered or forgotten by the host country? The study will employ fieldwork, interviews, and audience research, adopting a postcolonial perspective to explore economic development from the postwar period to the present. It will also examine the contradictory societal attitudes of reverence for foreign expertise and xenophobia, which structure an “internal colonialism” phenomenon. Spanning fifty years, the five memorials reflect changes in commemorating and mourning. How have these shifts impacted interaction with the general public? By exploring the traces of transnational migrant workers on these memorials, the study reflects on the desired development model and the fairness and justice for those within the nation’s borders but outside its citizenship.
Presenters
Yu-ling Kuassociate professor, Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Studies on Creative Writing and Literature, Taipei National University of the Arts, Changhua, Taiwan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Migrant Workers, Internal Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Workers' Memorials
