The Commander’s Stage: School Architecture of National Colonialism Under the Kuomintang Rule in Taiwan

The persisting threat of a military invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China conceals when it does not excuse the history of authoritarian rule by the Kuomintang (KMT), which has occupied the island since 1949. In this text, architecture student Yeh-Ting Li uses the example of the Commander’s Stage present in most Taiwanese schools as an architectural embodiment of the KMT rule and its performative manifestations.

The seemingly innocuous Commander’s Stage (司令台), now a ubiquitous fixture on school campuses throughout Taiwan from elementary to the university level marks not just the island’s enduring legacy from the Kuomintang (KMT) era of martial law but a larger truth: architecture has been a steadfast friend to colonial regimes, a strategic instrument to abetted dominance. The Commander’s Stage was employed extensively during the martial law era in Taiwan, a time of political turmoil and repression, and most of the stages are still in use today. These stages were carefully deployed within the educational terrain, far from embodying mere platforms to facilitate ceremonial events, but rather, an apparatus crafted to promote obedience and instill fear. The architectural nuances of the stages were orchestrated to the utmost visibility and projected a message of surveillance as embodiment of dictatorship. Although the martial law era has faded, the Commander’s Stage persists.