國家與地方社會之間：日治時期台灣公學校教師的社會史

Zhang Shigu was a school teacher in an elementary public school in Xinzhu prefecture during the 1910s. This paper looks into Zhang Shigu’s biography and his career development as a case study to examine the institutional channels of upward social mobility offered by the Japanese colonial government. Meanwhile, Zhang’s career development also provides us a model for understanding Taiwanese local elites’ “ladder of success” within the colonial system. Zhang was in his school age when Japan began the colonial rule in Taiwan, and thus belonged to the first generation of local elites who received new colloquium. Other than becoming a practicing doctor, another best option for the new educated local elites before 1910s was that one entered the teacher’s college and returned home to take the job as a school teacher at one’s home town after graduation. Around 1910s, there emerged new opportunities in many social sectors as Taiwan developed. Many young school teachers left their teaching jobs, took these new opportunities and changed their careers. Zhang followed this track and left his teaching position in 1920. He then joined the local administration and was in charge of the village affairs. Later on he invested in business and developed a successful career in commerce. He also became a charter in colonial government’s monopolized industries. The Japanese colonial government granted such interests to those who had influence for earning their cooperation. Looking into these different choices Zhang had made on his path of upward social mobility, it obviously revealed that the ladder of success of his climbing was provided by the changing colonial policies at various moments and was too conditioned by the regulations and limits intrinsic to the colonial rule.