Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? Reinventing Intermedial Urban Space in Early 1980s Taiwan

Abstract

This paper situates the proliferating media culture of early 1980s Taiwan against a social backdrop characterized by urbanites' malleable living environment. I argue for a reconsideration of urban space less as blueprinted or represented than as brought together by intermedial nexuses and collaborations. To do so, I study three media works-a video art work, a feature film, and a street performance-to illustrate their interrelations. By foregrounding the identity of mainlander veterans and their vanishing homes as underlying all three media works, I illustrate how intermedial networks help foster a collective citizenship that acutely reflects the issue of urban dwelling. A refocus on intermedial practices takes up issues of displacement, embodiment, and mobility, keys to teasing out body-environment relations in Taiwan's ultra-urbanizing era.