The pathology of modernity? Cultural dialogue and Taiwan's small-scale media

This dissertation investigates the Taiwanese state's cultural policy "Community Renaissance." The policy promises to establish an autonomous cultural public sphere in every local community. All participants could gain equal access to this public sphere and would be treated equally there. My research focuses on a city-style community, Fu-lin, to see whether the government's project provides an equal basis for human interaction and how cultural communication really happens in this particular community.;I conducted ethnographic research in Fu-lin from May 21st to August 21st, 1997. During the three-month period, I interviewed community residents, participated in public meetings, and celebrated their Community Day with them.;The lesson from the Fu-lin case can be concluded in two main points. First, cultural dialogue is necessary to replace the pre-defined cultural value (Formosan nationalism) as the ideological basis of any cultural public sphere. Second, this dialogue must take place within the public discourse, not just among a small group of close friends. Thus, it means that our focus should turn away from personal to mass communication.;I propose small-scale media as a new communication model for this cultural dialogue. If political participants are willing to take action to communicate with those who hold different historical views, this model provides a very feasible way to facilitate cultural dialogue.