Despite their substantial influence in contemporary art, few Taiwanese artists receive serious critical attention. These nine essays seek to remedy this by explaining Taiwanese visual culture
and landscape during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945). Four essays explain the traditional images of Taiwan and the discovery by others of the Taiwanese landscape and cover Japanese
travel writing about colonial Taiwan, the elements of exploration and travel in landscape painting, the links between Japanese landscape painting and Taiwan in terms of national identity and
the decline and demise of Oriental-style painting in Japan. Two essays describe images by and about women, including their changing representation and their depiction by Taiwanese women artists
under Japanese rule, and three papers address Taiwan's vernacular landscape, including the Taiwanese element in architecture, aboriginal art and its entanglements with identity and modernity,
and the treatment of colonial ideas in Taiwan's crafts. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
