本文討論1910年殖民地臺灣的斷髮運動過程以及斷髮論述的消長，藉此探討民間自主性的展現及總督府公權力介入下，殖民地權力結構所出現的變化與意義。1911年臺人自行組織「斷髮不改裝會」、大張旗鼓宣導斷髮時，另有一批臺人主動組成「守髮誼」，主張斷髮尚未法治化前，臺人自行斷髮是「違法」。這顯示日治初期總督府始終未曾將斷髮議題納入法律層面，而是適度地放任臺人自由行動，在這種情況下，臺人仍保有一定的自主性，使斷髮得以成為眾聲喧嘩的議題。然而，這種臺人自主性，終有消失的一刻。以同化會前後官方對斷髮態度的轉變為例，當民間的自發性與自主性過度膨脹到官方無法掌控、有危及殖民地政權安定的可能時，就會演變成官方主動介入。透過觀察地方保甲們在這股斷髮拉鋸戰中扮演的角色與特徵，以及同化會強迫解散後各地方官廳同步介入斷髮運動，這中間的權力收放，代表民間一旦自主性過度擴大，官方即剝奪人民對斷髮的判斷自由，統一且全面性透過保甲系統，將斷髮議題收編進官方強制運作的結構體系裡。從不斷自外於權力中心，到最後重新收編於權力體系當中，這種民間自發性的流通與終結，似乎是殖民地權力構造下的必然結果。而決定收編與否的時機點，則凸顯日本帝國主義政策本身的雙重性格與矛盾。

This article analyzes the queue-cutting movement and its discourse in colonial Taiwan during the 1910s in order to discuss the possibility of social autonomy within the changing context of the political relations and power structure of colonial governance. Social autonomy as presented in the Taiwanese queue-cutting movement and its discourse emerged and gained its space outside the colonizer's attention, met its limits, and eventually disintegrated into the colonial power structure. This seems an unavoidable consequence for a colonial society. Nonetheless, the colonized people could still find some space, however tiny in scope and short in duration, in which they could create social autonomy of their own by exploiting the internal contradictions of the colonial regime.