The Imagination and Realization of the Concept of Cleanliness in the Modernization of Family (I)

In the modernization of families, it』s no wonder that individuals are full of expectations to the 『future house』 which is supposed to correspond to the projection of the mass. Cleanliness plays an important role in the process. This study analyses the technological changes of cleaner and cleaning appliances, so as to investigate the social formation. Further, how the cleaning work been practiced in the family reveals how cleanliness, as a dominate ideology, penetrate our daily lives and straighten the gender relations. To refer to deconstructionist Roland Barthes, the study focus on daily experiences to explore the formation of the modern mythology of cleanliness. In additional to collect related documents to understand the technological changes, we will apply text analysis to look into the advertisements and mass media of cleaner. Qualitative method as well as oral history will be used to record the histories of individual private domain and the plebeian everyday lives. Through these methods, we could completely interpret how the modern domestic lifestyle was shaped by the ideology of cleanliness. With Taiwan falling into the developed countries, the transition of the idea of cleanliness would be a suitable clue to explore Taiwan』s modernization, which has traditionally been intertwined with colonial history and traditional Chinese patriarchy. Based on this cognition, this proposal』s aim is to profoundly examine the history of the modernization of Taiwan.

Project ID:PE9508-0393
External Project ID:NSC95-2411-H182-001