| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立大學 === 歷史與地理學系 === 106 === Space and Memory: The Historical Development and Evolution of the Taipei South Airport (Nanjichang in Taipei)
This study examined the spatial identity of the Taipei South Airport(Taipei’s Nanjichang) and the historical evolution of and memories for the Taipei South Airport. Premised on the questions of “where was Nanjichang?” and “why do names such as the Nanjichang Night Market or Nanjichang Apartment bear such a name but no airfield exists nearby?,” this study analyzed the geographic delimitation of the regional boundaries of Nanjichang, first tracing the origin of Nanjichang to the Taipei Training Ground of the Imperial Japanese Army, then reviewing the cadastral data accumulated since the introduction of state systems (state powers) to the land to delineate the spatial boundaries of the training ground, based on which the postwar cadastral data were referenced to determine the spatial boundaries of where Nanjichang would correspond to today. By doing so, the research team was able to determine that Nanjichang spanned the Youth Park, as well as the public housing and riverside park areas nearby.
The cultural history of Nanjichang bears strong state-centric characteristics. Therefore, the period concerned was divided into the Qing-rule period, whence state systems were introduced into Northern Taiwan; the Japanese colonization; and the postwar period until 2013, when the military dependents’ community that had emerged postwar finally disappeared from the landscape. Between 1708 and 1720 in the Qing-rule period, when Han Chinese settlers started building their communities in the region discussed, the region was on the banks of the Xindian River, which was ill-suited for agriculture. Therefore, records from that period contained far more entries on the Rujrycks (an indigenous tribe) than on the Han Chinese. By the time Japanese colonization started, however, the region had flourished. Owing to its proximity (2−3 km) to the Taiwan Sotokufu (Governor’s Palace), it was heavily used by the Japanese military for purposes such as providing protection for the colonial government, military exercises, aerial displays, and eventually as a logistics base for the government’s southward territorial expansion. After World War II, Japan’s military bases were relinquished to the Nationalist government of the Republic of China. Under the considerations of de-Japanization, strengthening diplomatic relations, stabilizing government control, and accommodating the large numbers of military personnel and civilians retreating from mainland China, the region was converted to a golf course, a military dependents’ community full of unauthorized building works, and the Machangding execution ground, all serving different functions. With the stabilization of political situations and the needs of urban development in Taiwan, the golf course was transformed into the modern-day Youth Park, and the military dependents’ community and the unauthorized building works there were gradually demolished or modernized. The rapid disappearance of the prewar and immediate postwar landscape has rendered the story of Nanjichang an obscure page of history.
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