Ordinary Straw Hats Guided Colonial Taiwan to International Fashion
In the early stage of Japanese colonial governance, the Government-General of Taiwan encouraged the straw hat business—the growth of which not only brought Taiwan to the stage of international fashion, but also consolidated Japan’s colonial imaginary of Taiwan as a southern island, a strategic site from which the southward advance policy could be launched. A story about colonial modernity and imaginaries, this article features as part of our special issue: Encountering Everyday Life: Taiwan in Museums.
By Chen Chih-wei (陳誌偉)
Translated by Justin Chun Yin Ng
Edited by Sabrina Teng-io Chung and Yu-Han Huang
This piece was originally published by the National Museum of Taiwan History. It was translated and published with the permission of the copyright owner.
When it comes to Taiwan’s agricultural products, you might have heard of deer skin, sugar, rice, tea, and camphor—items frequently mentioned in history textbooks in Taiwan. However, ordinary straw hats had also once brought great fortune to Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. Foreign exchange earned from exporting straw hats alone was only second to tea leaves and sugar. Similar to modern-day fashion trends, new hat designs would be released every year, ranging from rush hats to screw pine hats and paper hats. They were not only popular in Japan, but were also exported to the West, becoming a favourite of fashion followers all around the world and even monopolizing the supply chain of the hat business.
SUNSHINE, PALM TREES, STRAW HATS—THE TROPICAL ASIAN STYLED TAIWANESE HATS
The story of straw hats’ popularity began approximately one hundred years ago in Taiwan. According to folklore, the first straw hat in Taiwanese history was made by Âng Iong (洪鴦). She was inspired by the Taokas natives, who used rush to make mats. Upon modification, she was able to make a sunhat with these rushes. A daily item that the Taokas used for bartering now became popular commodities.
A postcard of a rush plantation in Taiwan issued by Tanabe bookstore (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2001.008.1243)
A set of tools for making straw hats (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2005.010.0188)
At the start of the Japanese colonial era, the straw hat business bloomed due to the Government-General’s encouragement. On the one hand, this could be seen as the colonial government’s business acumen; on the other hand, Japan had a vivid imagination of Taiwan as a southern island, which helped to push the tropical straw hat into the global world. For instance, the tropical-styled straw hat was a major selling point in many advertisements of Tsuji Shōten, a Taipei-based Japanese trading company.
A book documenting the the hat-making industry in Taiwan, 1928 (Showa 3, 昭和 3 年) (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2017.025.0113.0061)
Tsuji Shōten’s catalogue of products from Taiwan (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, tentative number T2018.001.2720)
More interestingly, to gain more profits, businessmen not only followed the trend of producing rush hats and screw pine hats, but also creatively attempted to make hats with all sorts of leaves, inventing a variety of products such as hats made of hardy banana leaves or betel nut palm leaves.
However, the classic tropical-styled rush hat was still the most preferred item. After promotional advertising, these hats were widely exported to places such as Japan and Shanghai and were thus often one of the best-selling exports. As more products were developed, “Taiwanese Hats” gained global recognition. The widely exported hats also became a propaganda tool during the later period of Japanese colonial rule. For example, the Hats of Taiwan (台灣帽子の話), published in 1943, included many pictures of advertisements, such as implied images of multiple people attempting to lift a giant paper hat, or the Earth wearing a giant straw hat with Japanese cruisers and fighter planes passing by. Also, slogans such as “Very Well! The Taiwanese Hats of Co-prosperity” , “Taiwanese hats, the hats of Asia” were often seen in these advertisements and even translated into Thai. All these texts showed the Japanese ambition to monopolize the straw hat market and their determination and morale to expand the ruling domain.
NEW SCHOOL YOUTHS: TRENDY CLOTHING IN THE COLONIAL ERA
What did young people wear hanging out during the Japanese colonial era?
According to a Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō article in 1910, they observed that contrary to other old school young men and women who wore suits or dresses, flamboyant “new school” youths often sported pigtails and wore screw pine hats and leather shoes decorated with bowknots.
Two men posing for a photo (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2010.006.0274.0003)
Vong Vong-shang (黃旺成), a journalist from Taiwan People News who enjoyed writing diaries, documented his everyday clothing choice. It was obvious the straw hat was his favorite. For example, he once ordered a dozen screwpine hats, which could be used himself or as gifts to his friends. Perhaps his favor for hats came from his good friend and fellow Taiwanese People’s Party member Pėh Sîng-tsi (白成枝) who was skilled in weaving hats and mats with rushes. We could however still see the importance and popularity of straw hats in people’s everyday lives.
The screw pine hat, or nâ-tâu bō (林投帽), that Vong bought was the rising star after rush hats. It was one of the earliest knockoff products in Taiwan, renowned for skillfully copying the expensive Panama hat. Despite cruder in texture, its more affordable pricing attracted orders from Japanese, Chinese and even Western businessmen. Imagine this scenario: broke trendy hipsters who wore knockoff clothes to become fashionable. In the end, widely spread counterfeits became a big hit among the public.
A record of how screw pines were processed to make hats (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2006.009.1364.0011)
Despite its fame, the once popular rush hats fell out of fashion without the support from big-name brands. Sales of these hats tanked, and after the invention of paper hats, the export sales of rush hats fell from hundreds of thousands during its peak to several thousands in 1913.
A rush panama hat with a wide brim (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2012.023.0020)
During the Pacific Wars, Japan imposed restrictions on imported raw materials. Rush hats, which were made with locally grown plants, were reborn under the Japanese Government-General’s strong encouragement, and the productions peaked to 1.18million hats in 1941.
HATS, WHEN NEW IDEAS COLLIDE WITH THE OLD
Much like how the swimsuit brought up the trend of fitness and the popular adaptation of the idea of body-building, straw hats also affected a generation’s thinking and values. One of the most prominent phenomena of this effect was the change in hairstyle.
Queues were considered a bad habit after Japan took over Taiwan. The revolution in China also made the local Taiwanese elites reflect on the meaning of cutting their queues. The hat-making industry in Taiwan managed to ride this trend. An article in 1911 by the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō said:
“These days, the demand from the locals for cutting off their queues has largely increased… After cutting their queues, the weight on their head eased and people would wear hunting hats to adjust their mood, leading to great sales of hats. In Hong Kong, the prices of hats increased several times due to shortage; Japanese mainland hat makers even had orders that couldn’t be fulfilled until next year’s spring. Taiwanese panama hat makers shouldn’t miss this rare business opportunity.”
The shift in modern values allowed the straw hat to ride the trend of queue cutting, and became a fashionable item among the public during the Japanese rule. Wearing hats was not only a display of fashion taste, but also a practical way for people to explore their own identity.
Besides changes in hairstyles, the production of straw hats also impacted the traditional patriarchal values.
In Dajia area where straw hats and mats were produced, girls were more privileged than boys. As a proverb says,
“Tasteless eating and shallow sleeping,
People prefer girls than boys
Boys go out for earning
Girls stay and take care of their parents.”
Most of the hat and mat making jobs fell on women who were good at weaving. In the Japanese colonial era, the women’s wages for straw hat weaving could even support a whole family.
Women weaving hats (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2004.020.0107.0045)
This trend was also noted by the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō. An article noted that Taiwanese women were enjoying “three fortunate things”: “unbinding their feet was becoming common; new legislation was enforced that people should have child brides or maids registered as one of the household members; and one could feed her family with hat making.” The hat making industry allowed women to walk out of their homes and work, and even become breadwinners of their family, therefore shifting gender roles in families. At the same time, some suggested that foot binding was hindering women in their jobs and the practice should be banned to improve hat making efficiency. These suggestions were, at the time, subversive to traditions.
Who could have thought that these values were not introduced by the preaching articles of the intellectuals, but were instead from an ordinary hat?
Relevant Museum Collections:
Straw-hitting mallet (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2004.025.0733)
Straw-forming press (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2004.025.0738)
Straw hat mould (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, collection number 2004.028.1592)
A stock certificate and a business card of Shinchiku Prefecture Hat Inc., attached with a photo of straw hat weaving. (Source: National Museum of Taiwan History, tentative number T2018.001.7951)
Reference:
“Hat Making Business is Hopeful,” Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō, No.3525 (January 29, 1910), 3.
“Latest Fashion,” Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō, No.3638 (June 2, 1910), 4.
“Straw Hat Market,” Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō, No.4016 (July 29, 1911), 3.
“Three Fortunate Things of Taiwanese Women,” Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō, No.4113 (November 8, 1911), 1.
“An Overview of Hat Industry: Barriers to Improvement ,” Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpō, No.3992 (July 5, 1911), 2.
Koike, Kinnosuke 小池金之助, Hats of Taiwan, Taihoku: Taiwan Boshi Togyo Kumiai Renwakai, 1943.
Guo, Jinrun 郭金潤, Special Issue of Straw Hats and Mat in Dajia. Taichung: Taichung County Cultural Center, 1985.
Huang, Wangcheng (Vong Vong-shang) 黃旺成, Diary of Vong Vong-shang, Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2017.
Zhang, Zhongjian張仲堅, “An overview of hat and mat industries in Taiwan”, Taiwan Wen Hsien, 61:2 (June 2010). Nantou: Taiwan Historica, 2010.
Wu, Chi-hao 吳奇浩, “Western Attire, Japanese Kimono, and Taiwanese Clothes: The Multicultural Hybridity of Taiwan Clothing in the Japanese Colonial Period”, New History, 26:3 (September 2015).
Maio, Yan-wei 苗延威, “Dajia Hats: a Historical Sociology Approach Research”. MOST Project Final Report, 2013.
Pien Feng-kwei 卞鳳奎, “A Study on Colonial Period Taiwanese Merchants’ Trading Activities in Japan: Centering on Taiwanese Hat Merchants’ Activities in Kobe”, in Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Fellowship Final Report, 2012.
Wang, Zhengxun 王振勳, “A Historical Examination on Dajia Rush and the Transition of Its Processed Goods Production”, Chaoyang Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2 (2003), Taichung.
Wang, Ching-yi 王景怡, “Features of Production and Marketing of Hat and Mat Industries in Japanese Colonial Period Dajia Region). M.A. Thesis. Kaohsiung: National Kaohsiung Normal University, 2008.
