Journey into Modern Taiwanese Literature (1): Overview
From the “Taiwan Literature Base,” we will continue the journey of literature and go back in time to the moment of the birth of Taiwan’s modern literature a hundred years ago.
Greetings to friends old and new & thanks for everyone’s subscription! Our newsletter is on its way to 100 subscribers. Please share the newsletter with your friends : )
Time flies. In an earlier issue, I wrote about Huang Tu-shui’s Water of Immortality and the exhibition of “Lumière: The Enlightenment and Self-Awakening of Taiwanese Culture.” The exhibition will end in a week and a half’s time, on April 24th. Those in Taipei are recommended to pay a visit. By the way, I learned the publication of a new book 臺灣美術兩百年 (Two Hundred Years of Taiwanese Art) this month. It is cheerful news that more and more good books are being released.
Our last post introduced the “Taiwan Literature Base.” This time, we will continue the journey of literature and go back in time to the moment of the birth of Taiwan’s modern literature a hundred years ago.
The final section includes information of our online reading club. If your are interested, feel free to leave a comment, reply to this e-mail message or write to me at transcreation@substack.com to register. We can start the meeting with one or two more friends joining us!
《翻譯寫作的文字風景》是中英文雙語電子報。如果只想收到中文版，請到網站右上角的「My Account」內進行操作，也可以直接回覆這封E-mail或寫信到transcreation@substack.com，由我幫忙更改設定。再次感謝你的訂閱支持！
這篇文章的中文版在這裡。
The history of modern literature in Taiwan is very similar to that of modern art: both started with the Japanese colonial rule. The experience of colonialism and modernity under the Japanese rule became an important turning point in Taiwan’s history. Therefore, reading the history of modern literature seems to be an extension of my previous study of the history of modern art.
To be more specific, however, the starting point that prompted me to embark on this journey into literature was two book lists, one being English books about Taiwan, and the other being academic publications on Taiwanese literature. Thanks Graham Oliver for sharing the former (Graham Oliver is a writer and teacher from the United States). I mentioned that I did not know which Taiwanese literary works have been translated into English, and he promptly shared this goodreads book list with me. I found myself unable to evaluate this book list, and felt that I should read more about the history of Taiwanese literature. Thanks Chen Lei-Chi, a good friend of mine who studies in the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, for generously sharing her comprehensive book list1 for preparation of the entrance exam of the graduate institute. I always feel that she has read more books before she started her master’s studies than I did after I completed mine.
When reading Chen Fang-ming’s A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature 台灣新文學史, I reflected on the trajectory of my own knowledge formation at the same time, and found that I lacked a comprehensive understanding of the Taiwanese literature history. Looking back on the Chinese literature class in high school, we studied classical Chinese literature relatively comprehensively, from the Classical Prose Movement and the Eight Prose Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties, onward to the Tongcheng School of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and then back to the writings of the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties.
In contrast, my understanding of modern vernacular literature was relatively fragmented. Though I read Lu Xun (魯迅, 1881 - 1936), Pai Hsien-yung (白先勇, 1937 -), Yu Kwang-chung (余光中, 1928 - 2017), Yang Mu (楊牧, 1940-2020), etc., and I also learned some contemporary writers such as Chang Lotus (張惠菁, 1971 -) and Ko Yu-Fen (柯裕棻, 1968 -) from the reading horizons of my teachers and classmates, the vernacular literature was basically taught as “easy reading / entertainment” interspersed in the middle of classical Chinese. Even though I learned some individual writers and works, they were all like scattered stars to me and could not be organized into constellations and star maps. (I wonder if the case has changed since the syllabus has been revised several times?)
A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature is the magnum opus of Chen Fang-ming created with efforts over 10 years, thanks to whom we are endowed with our own literature history. My reading approach is very similar to his: I believe we must be attentive to the historical context when reading literature, and that solid knowledge seems to come with the frame of literature history. Sometimes I wonder if this way of reading is a bit too limiting, yet as a human being, with a physical body, I may not be able to make my mind free of all boundaries. I can only resort to self-reflection from time to time, expand the boundaries of my thinking, or redraw the map of my body of knowledge to incorporate new continents and new islands, or to switch to another way of projection. I read this book very slowly and have only finished the chapters on the Japanese colonial period, but I thought this would be an interesting journey.
The periodization of Taiwanese literature history basically echoes that of the political history. It is divided into the colonial era under the Japanese rule (1895 - 1945), the re-colonial era under the postwar martial law rule (1945 - 1987), and the post-colonial era after the democratization (1987 - ). Taiwan has been a colonial society for a long time, and the literature it produces is colonial literature. From colonization, re-colonization to today’s post-colonization, the construction/reconstruction of subjectivity has always been the core issue.
Chen Fang-ming’s A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature adopts a post-colonial point of view. He treats the establishment of the Taiwan Cultural Association (台灣文化協會) in 1921 as the starting point of the modern literature, and divides the literature history from the Japanese colonial rule2 to the lifting of the martial law as follows:3
Japanese Colonial Rule: Colonial Era
1. Enlightenment and Experiment Period (1921 - 1931)
2. United Front Period (1931 - 1937)
3. Japanization Movement Period (1937 - 1945)
Postwar Nationalist Government: Re-colonial Era
4. Historical Transition Period (1945 - 1949)
5. Anti-Communist Literature Period (1949 - 1960)
6. Modernism Period (1960 - 1970)
7. Nativist Literature Period (1970 - 1979)
8. Intellectual Liberation Period (1979 - 1987)
Democratization: Post-colonial Era
9. Booming Diversity Period (1987 - )
Below is a brief introduction to each period.
Enlightenment and Experiment Period (1921 - 1931):
In the early days of the establishment of modern literature, the works were highly experimental and the languages used were diverse. During this period, the New Literature Movement was a part of the political movements, and the literary works were more of historical value than of artistic value.United Front Period (1931 - 1937):
Literature groups independent of political groups emerged, and literature was no longer a branch of political movements. Literary works of this period were of more artistic value.Japanization Movement Period (1937 - 1945):
Under the influence of the national war policy, the language policy became strict and Chinese was banned. Writers were forced to take a stance and to celebrate the national policy (to support the war).Historical Transition Period (1945 - 1949):
The Nationalist government took over Taiwan and abolished the use of Japanese. Deprived of the language and fearful of the political atmosphere in view of the 228 Incident and the political corruption, local writers fell silent for 20 years.Anti-Communist Literature Period (1949 - 1960):
The active writers were mainly those from the Mainland. The development in this period foretold the two different lines of official literature and folk literature in the future.Modernism Period (1960 - 1970):
As Taiwan economically received American aid, it was culturally influenced by American and Western cultures. Under the trend of modernism, writers turned to descriptions of inward emotions, which also allowed them to avoid echoing official literary and artistic policies.Nativist Literature Period (1970 - 1979):
Under the impact of international situations such as the withdrawal from the United Nations and the severance of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the United States, the martial law rule was questioned, so was Taiwan’s “representation of China.” Thus, writers turned from inward, personal descriptions to the concerns of social reality.Intellectual Liberation Period (1979 - 1987):
Along with a wave of democratization in politics, a debate between “Chinese consciousness” and “Taiwan consciousness” emerged in the literary world. After the debate, Taiwanese literature finally established its name as Taiwanese literature, which became a term accepted by all. Literary works moved towards the direction of liberation long before the official lifting of the martial law, showing rich imagination and vitality.Booming Diversity Period (1987 - ):
As the society opens up, everyone is free to explore various aspects that have been suppressed in the past, from political events such as 228 and the White Terror, to the writing of erotic, sensual experiences such as sexual liberation and gay issues. There are abundant developments in all directions.
The periodization of literature history not only reflects the internal development of the literary world, but is also deeply affected by the overall political situation, and the concern of literature is always inseparable from the social vibes. Even from the brief introduction above, we can see that issues of language and colonization come up again and again.
Intellectuals in the Japanese colonial period had heated discussions about which language to use. Classical Chinese could not meet the needs of new literature, and using Japanese of the colonial government seemed to give colonization legitimacy. Intellectuals advocated various language choices, including Chinese vernacular, Romanization, and Taiwanese. For the first 10 years, Chinese vernacular was the mainstream, but eventually Japanese took over as the dominant language. This past of language choices reflects the difficulties and efforts of predecessors in pursuing cultural subjectivity, which can be said to be a problem unique to a colonial society. I thought of Lai Ho and Lian Heng 連橫, both of whom I had read in class, both classified as Taiwanese literary figures, and both living in the era of Japanese colonial rule. After learning the language issue in this time, I realized that they were in fact situated almost at opposite ends of the spectrum, as suggested by their choices of language alone.
After the end of the Japanese colonial era, the Nationalist government took over Taiwan, and this era was called by Chen as the recolonization era. The language problem re-emerged after the war, and I think this alone justifies the naming of “recolonization.” This time, however, the intellectuals were not left with any choice or any room to debate. They could not continue using Japanese, the language they knew best, and had to learn to use Chinese vernacular. Language issues and the repressive political climate made local writers silent for 20 years — as long as the time of a generation.
Let us fast forward to the contemporary era, in which language is still a field of intense debates. After more than half a century of hegemony of Mandarin as the national language, today people are trying to revive the native languages, yet the voices of criticism and doubt have never disappeared. In light of this, it seems the problems faced by our predecessors under the Japanese colonial rule are still related to us even now. Over a century’s time, the pursuit and frustration of subjectivity have become the keynote of modern Taiwanese literature, and decolonization has become the direction for us to continue advancing.
Back to goodreads book list at the beginning, though I have read only a few chapters of the book, I can better understand at which points of the spectrum the writers on the list fall. The only earlier writers in the list are Lai Ho and Wu Zhuoliu (吳濁流), while the others are mainly writers after the 1960s and 1970s. I intend to read literature history and search for the English translations of Taiwanese literature in the future; maybe I will be able to make a different book list in the end.
While I was reading this book list and wondering which Taiwanese literary works have been translated into English, an issue about translation suddenly came to my mind: Taiwanese literature during the Japanese colonial era (perhaps also in the post-war era) may have been written in Japanese, and we have to rely on the Chinese translation if we do not speak Japanese. Then, the definition of Taiwanese literature hinges not on the languages but on the notion of Taiwan. Works written in English, Japanese, Vietnamese and other languages may also be Taiwanese literature.
We want to be as inclusive as possible within the framework of Taiwanese literature, just like the way we build the national identity today. This kind of identity, however, always has an inherent problem: no matter how inclusive a nation is, there will always be boundaries. So would it be a good idea to retain the frame, or do we have to overthrow it altogether? These questions may not have easy answers, and I hope continuing on the journey into literature will shed some light on me.
About the Reading Club
Welcome to join our online reading club! We can start the meeting with one or two more people joining us. The meeting time would be at 8:00 pm (Taipei Time) on a Saturday once a month, and we will finish one book in 2 to 3 months.
We will read Taiwanese literature first, and the books I have in mind are as early as Lai Ho’s “Scales of Injustice,” Wu Zhuoliu’s Orphan of Asia, or as contemporary as Chen Shih-hung’s Ghost Town, a friend’s recommendation.
I look forward to reading and discussing with you. Feel free to leave a comment, reply to this e-mail message or write to me at transcreation@substack.com to register, and any suggestion for the book list is also welcome!
References
Chen Fang-ming 陳芳明, A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature (10th Anniversary New Edition) 台灣新文學史 (十週年紀念新版). Taipei: Linking Books, 2021.
Taiwan Books on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/taiwan
I started reading only Chen Fang-ming’s A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature. Here is the complete book list shared by Lei-Chi for the reference of readers who are interested (or who aspired to study in the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature).
[Note: the books are all in Mandarin Chinese, and the following names and book titles in English are produced by editing machine translation for reference only.]
Peng Ruijin 彭瑞金, Forty Years of Taiwan’s New Literature Movement 台灣新文學運動四十年.
Ye Shitao 葉石濤, Outline of Taiwan Literature History 台灣文學史綱.
Chen Fang-ming 陳芳明, A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature 台灣新文學史.
Wang Der-wei 王德威, Polyphonous Clamor 眾聲喧嘩.
Wang Der-wei 王德威, How to be Modern, How to Produce Literature? 如何現代, 怎樣文學?
Zhang Jinzhong 張錦忠 and Huang Jinshu 黃錦樹, Rewriting the History of Taiwanese Literature 重寫台灣文學史.
Huang Jinshu 黃錦樹, Malayan Chinese Literature and Chineseness 馬華文學與中國性.
Li Youcheng 李有成 and Zhang Jinzhong 張錦忠, Diaspora and Imagination of Home Country 離散與家國想像.
Zhang Songsheng 張誦聖, Changes in the Field of Literature 文學場域的變遷.
Shi Shu 施淑, Literary Constellations 文學星圖.
Gao Jiaqian 高嘉謙, Seeing a Mountain as a Mountain Again: A Study of Li Yongping 見山又是山: 李永平研究.
Chen Jianzhong 陳建忠, On Taiwanese Writers During the Japanese Occupation Period: Modernity, Nativeness, and Colonialism 日據時期台灣作家論: 現代性, 本土性, 殖民性.
You Shengguan 游勝冠, The Rise and Development of Localist Discourse in Taiwanese Literature 臺灣文學本土論的興起與發展.
Huang Mei-er 黃美娥, Classical Taiwan: Literature History, Poetry Society, and Writers 古典臺灣: 文學史, 詩社, 作家論.
Huang Mei-er 黃美娥, Multi-layered Mirror Image of Modernity: The Cultural Vision and Literary Imagination of Taiwan’s Traditional Literati during the Japanese Colonial Period 重層現代性鏡像: 日治時期臺灣傳統文人的文化視域與文學想像.
Xu Junya 許俊雅 ed., Selected Readings of Taiwanese Novels During the Japanese Colonial Period 日治時期台灣小說選讀.
Shi Yilin 施懿琳, From Shen Guangwen to Lai Ho: The Development and Characteristics of Taiwanese Classical Literature 從沈光文到賴和: 台灣古典文學的發展與特色.
Yang Zhao 楊照, Fog and Painting: Essays on Post-War Taiwanese Literature History 霧與畫: 戰後台灣文學史散論.
Huang Jinshu 黃錦樹 and Gao Jiaqian 高嘉謙, Prose 散文類.
Zheng Mingyu 鄭明娳, On Modern Prose 現代散文縱橫論.
Zhang Ruifen 張瑞芬, A History of Prose by Contemporary Taiwanese Women Writers 臺灣當代女性散文史論.
Fan Mingru 范銘如, Looking for Her in the Crowd: An Overview of Taiwanese Women Writer's Fiction 眾裏尋她: 台灣女性小說縱論.
Chen Jianzhong 陳建忠, Ying Fenghuang 應鳳凰, Qiu Guifen 邱貴芬, Zhang Songsheng 張誦聖, and Liu Liangya 劉亮雅, A History of Taiwan Fiction 台灣小說史論.
Zhu Youxun 朱宥勳, Novels That Schools Don’t Dare to Teach 學校不敢教的小說.
Wang Der-wei 王德威, Taiwan: A History through Literature 從文學看歷史.
Chen uses the term “Japanese occupation (日據)” in A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature, while I use “Japanese colonial rule (日治)” here.
Chen Fang-ming 陳芳明, A History of Modern Taiwanese Literature (10th Anniversary New Edition) 台灣新文學史 (十週年紀念新版) (Taipei: Linking Books, 2021), 31.