while reading the taiwan news, i encountered the new dispute between the thao and the nantou county government involving lalu, an island in the middle of sun moon lake (rihyueh tan). the island is sacred to the thao. the nationalist party had renamed the island, "recovery of china"--what else would they call it? --and, in 1978 the local government built a pavilion there. because the lake was a favorite site for honeymoons in the 1960s and 1970s, the pavilion served for weddings, among other functions. eventually, the 9/21 earthquake destroyed the pavilion. when the name was restored, i.e., changed back to lalu, the thao thought that they might recover the island for themselves. however, the nantou county government has plans to build a resort hotel, which will occupy the island. the thao argue that the island should revert to their control
the arguments surrounding the island might put the history of sun moon lake into focus, particularly for the traces of the diverse project. at its heart, the dispute centers on what one might call the normative weight of historical truth. do the traces of indigenous history have precedence over other traces? how are these traces to be composed into sun moon lake as a landscape? after all, there are several possible sun moon lakes: the sun moon lake of japanese colonial period hydroelectric projects and the jiji trainline, the sun moon lake which served as a surrogate for chinese landscapes--the sun moon lake that was one of the chiang family's playgrounds, sun moon lake of pavilions, the sun moon lake of honeymooners, the sun moon lake of indigenous people. disputes such as this one concern the composition of sun moon lake. whatever the resort might be, i suspect that the plans include some incorporation of thao iconography or other representation of indigenous history. it will likely attempt to erase the inherent tackiness of sun moon lake's honeymoon heaven identity, even if it courts honeymooners. because i haven't seen the plans for the resort, i do not know the sun moon lake of the resort. nor do i really know the sun moon lake of the thao
it would be possible, i think, to write a history out from the dispute, to fill in traces of each possible sun moon lake and show how this current controversy reconfigures them. this work would show us not only the history of sun moon lake but tell us something about landscapes in contemporary taiwan in general
