Postmodern City & Space of Flows

Postmodern City & Space of Flows Taipei’s Examples

Outline • Starting Questions: Space of Flows 〈公寓導遊〉

Starting Questions • Do you find anything in common among〈系統的多重關係〉、《一一》、《愛情萬歲》、〈天橋不見了〉and 〈公寓導遊〉? A. Love and Human Connections in Taipei – difficult because • They happen among “strangers,” or people outside of marriage/family and in public spaces; • Families are broken, and people seem to be/are uprooted and in the flows B. The school and the apartment as miniature society—in multiple relations • An “omniscient” narrator connecting the characters’ lives  People of different classes (both at home and away from home) are set adrift in the urban flows in different ways (with different degree of mobility and sense of uprootedness)

Difference --公寓導遊 • Apartment Tour Guide –less sympathetic and more objective • The lives – more diverse (than 系統的多重關係), connected by coincidence, accidence or mere concurrence (simultaneity).

People in the Urban Flows • Flows of desires, commodities, information, people and capital. • 《愛情萬歲》、〈公寓導遊〉, 〈天橋不見了〉etc. – • The characters who are not family members they are interconnected • by mere chance • by chance in their common space and by their past (公寓導遊） • by their mutual support (Vive l’amour), common loss (Skywalk)and/or fears (公寓). • Three class levels: middle class at 〈公寓導遊〉， middle and lower class in Vive l’amour and Skywalk, with menial jobs, jobless or emotionally empty.

Starting Questions (2) • What is “space of flows”? And what causes it? • Happy Together (春光乍洩) • Love Go Go (愛情來了)

Starting Questions (2) • What is “space of flows”? And what causes it? • Flows: a general feature in postmodern society (caused by technologies—esp. telecommunication—multinational capitalism and global migration. • Five kinds: people and traffic, goods, information, virus and desire. • Issues: a. different degrees of mobility; b. the global vs. the local in the uneven flows of goods ( geometry of power); c. Compression of time and space (space virtualized or non-place) d. risk factors e. Loss of stable relations and identity

Space of Flows (2) • Manual Castells: Network Society and Space of Flows • 3 levels of flows: • The flows of information (electronic communication) • The network of nodes (節點; e.g. mega-cities like Taipei) and hubs (中繼站; e.g. station, airport, port and telecommunication system) • Transnational Elite groups (decision makers, entrepreneurs and technicians)

Flows on Different Class Levels • Different purposes • Different degrees of mobility, risks and stability • Chance encounters and coincidences • A different sense of community

公寓導遊 (1986) • Do you live in an apartment building like this? • What does the name 富禮 of this apartment building mean? • What does the plot development of this story imply? • Are the residents anomies and their contacts, as put Louis Wirth it, “impersonal, transitory, segmental, and mostly utilitarian” • How are the residents connected-- by chance encounters, their past lives and their present fears and desires, and by mere coincidence?

Examples of Concurrence and past interconnections • 易小姐 and the guard p. 211 • The widow that dances with Mr. Liang P. 203 • Susan’s envy of white culture p. 205

2nd + primary roles-- connections by the narrator • 范設計師 林南施  關佑開管理員 魏太太、易單身女郎 林色狼(their past) 梁少將  中年寡婦 (her son)  美商律師J.J. and Susan 小妞（梁少將 and her father） 關管理員  管畫家（農夫）易單身女郎 齊老太太(accident)  劉茶莊老闆  魏太太and her suspicious husband  黃、朱小情侶 朱去舞廳 dances with 林南施  runs over a dog (accident)  狗主人張保險公司襄理  拿到獎卷的賴進財(accident)  once helped a blind man  Mr. Wu’s twin boys playing blind men and revelation of death  the suicide of 林南施  賴進財

their present fears and desires. • Male chauvinists: • 易單身女郎 and 林色狼 –Lin’s pursuit of her in the past –proves him a chauvinist. (201); 林 sleepless • 梁少將‘s loss of power  中年寡婦 (her son)  his past power over Susan’s father (202-205) • 關管理員‘s desire for 易, and his marking his territory with urine. (199-200) • 管畫家‘s use of the guard, 關 as an image of farmer (206) • Other signs of male power 劉茶莊老闆、朱小情侶﹔張襄理‘s power over the victims

Problems and Accidents Problems in Family and Love relations: • 林 insomniac • 魏先生suspicious of his wife; quarreling • 朱國棟, find release elsewhere when being rejected by his girl friend Accidents with hidden remote reasons of gender oppression • 易婉君’s worrying about being found a prostitue 齊老太太’s death • 林南施’s failed attempt to find release at the dance hall  the death of the dog Accident leading to justice? • 張德均’s attempt to escape cigarette box with lottery ticket  賴進財(kindness rewarded by accident) Another semi-positive figure: 管畫家

The two children’s growth

References • 夏鑄九〈台灣的文化編入與脫落－依賴城市都市象徵支初步觀察〉 • Joseph Allen Traces of Ethnic Tension in the Taipei Public Space: Taipei New Park http://www.international.ucla.edu/cira/paper/TWAllen.pdf • 歷史台北 http://www2.ctps.tp.edu.tw/country/history/hist.htm • NOTES ON URBANIZATION IN DEVELOPING SOCIETIEShttp://www.rrojasdatabank.org/urban1.htm • A question of definition:What is the informal sector?http://www.gdrc.org/informal/001-define.html • 台灣都市發展的演進―歷史的回顧與展望 • 網絡社會的形構 Castells 論流動空間

Postmodern City & Space of Flows