| Abstract: | 近現代的東亞社會裡，男子髮式象徵著政體變革，也因此，相關研究大多圍繞在斷髮倡議者有關「新國民」的論述和想像。然而，「斷髮」做為一種身體實踐（bodily practice），其鑲嵌的地方政治和物質文化，卻未獲得充分討論。本研究計畫以日治初期台灣的斷髮運動為中心，討論以下兩大主題：（1）身體政治與地方政治。本研究首先將以1910年代初斷髮團體與保髮團體之間的對立為主軸，剖析本土菁英之間的地緣連帶與意識型態衝突；接著，本研究將討論斷髮儀式的多重意含：導引情感共鳴的社會機制、跨入「文明開化」門檻的通過儀式，以及地方權力秩序與社會網絡的操練和再現。（2）殖民現代性與身體整飭。「斷髮」是一種透過身體演示而宣告脫離傳統的集體行動，而這種集體行動乃是架構在衛生學與病理學化的社會診斷、日報式的資訊介面、電氣化的感官延伸、重構的移動型態與空間秩序、以及視覺科技的普及化等等知識／科技元素之中，層層疊疊地傳遞出「殖民現代性」的聲聲召喚。剪辮之後的台灣男子，面臨了全新的身體整飭選擇：走進新式的理髮屋，還是繼續到剃頭店處理頭髮？就歷史結果而言，為了因應「短髮時代」的來臨，本島人亦開始轉型經營理髮屋。「理髮業組合規則」和「理髮業取締規則」等法規的施行，則更進一步地將理髮業的競爭問題檯面化。
Change of men’s hairstyle in modern East Asian societies symbolized significant transformations of polities or regimes. Previous studies on queue-cutting movements either in revolutionary China or in colonial Taiwan during the 1910s have usually focused on advocators’ discourse and imagination about new nation and new citizens. “Hair-cutting” as a bodily practice and its contexts embedded within local politics and material culture were not sufficiently discussed, however. This research project aims to explore two related issues: (1) body politics and local politics. Highlighting debates over the queue-cutting advocacy, the research proposes that the movement triggered cultural and political conflicts between local elites. The queue-cutting rituals and their multiple functions that served as a social mechanism of emotional resonance, a rite of passage into a stage of “civilization”, and a way of representation of power order and social network of local communities. (2) colonial modernity and body management. The research suggests that the “queue-cutting” movement could be seen as a collective identity-shaping action. Corporal demonstrations like this were nevertheless framed within experiences of colonial modernity: hygiene and pathology (e.g., various rules and inspections on cleanliness and sterilization), speedy information flow (e.g., daily newspaper), electrified sensational extensions (e.g., telegraph, telephone, electric light), urban landscape (e.g., broad roads, Western buildings, hotels, railway stations, public parks), automatic machines (e.g., automobiles, steam locomotives) and so on. For queue-cut men, who had become “short-haired” for the first time in their lifetime, there had been a new choice for their body management in addition to shaving their heads in the traditional way: cutting their hair in a Western/Japanese style of barber shop. As a historical consequence, native Taiwanese barbers began to invest themselves in the new business and to compete with Japanese barbers in the island; the competition was furthered by governmental regulations on associations of barber shop owners and on requirements for licensing a barber shop. |
