The lasting effects of authoritarianism on contemporary Taiwanese identity are explored through a psychoanalytic reading of Lin Yu-Shan’s painting ‘Handing Over Horses’, which depicts a Taiwanese serviceman leading horses for the Japanese army during WWII in 1943. After the Republic of China’s takeover in 1945, Lin replaced Japanese flags with R.O.C. ones amid the Nationalist military suppression of 1947. While hidden throughout the White Terror (1950s–1980s), the right panel deteriorated. In 1999, following Taiwan’s democratisation, Lin restored the original Japanese flags on the right, leaving the altered left panel unchanged.
While the painting’s material transformation mirrors the psychological ruptures inflicted under authoritarianism, it also suggests a reformation of Taiwanese identity beyond national symbols depicted on its surface. By recreating the painting’s cycles of deterioration and restoration, the cyanotype-based moving image offers a meditation on the impact of psychic alienation — manifested as indifference to state violence — on the construction of identity.
Handing Over Horses | Painting courtesy of Lin Yu-shan
Cover image | Photoshoot by Carlfried Verwaayen
1Visual elements from the original painting were reprinted with cyanotype gelatin on acrylic plates and scanned to create a moving image of the painting’s transformation cycle. 2Project exhibition during the 2025 Dutch Design Week