'Children's Dreamland': constructing national identity through a children's festival in post-authoritarian Taiwan

Abstract

Images of children have been prominent symbols in Taiwan's public culture since the island embarked on a nation-making process in the 1990s. Through a case study of the Yilan International Children's Folklore and Folkgames Festival (YICFFF), the first Taiwanese festival dedicated to children, this paper presents how the planning process and program designs of this newly created festival are connected to a reconceptualization of children and childhood amid national identity transformation in the post-authoritarian era. I argue that the implementation of the well-received Festival reflected the structure of feeling of the 1990s Taiwan, when there emerged an increasingly popular quest for transcending the society's divided historical memory through pursuit of a vibrant and globally recognizable nationhood. The Festival provides a critical site wherein visions concerning desired national future are articulated in the programming for its intended children's audience. Attending the Festival and its peripheral activities, furthermore, generates a new communal experience for the nation-in-becoming.