Taiwanese Literature
Taiwanese modern literature developed under the direct influence and promotion of the New Literature Movement in mainland China. Because Taiwanese literature has had different historical encounters and cultural opportunities in modern times than those on the mainland, some basic literary propositions and development patterns formed have their own particularities. If we examine the development of Taiwanese literature in modern times within the historical framework of modern Chinese literature, we will find that it is not just provincial literature in the general sense, but an important and distinctive branch of modern Chinese literature.
A historical outline of the development of modern literature in Taiwan
Taiwan’s New Literature Movement originated in July 1920. At that time, some Taiwanese students studying in Japan imitated the mainland’s "New Youth" and Tokyo founded "Taiwan Youth" to "study Taiwan's innovation and seek cultural improvement", which triggered Taiwan's new cultural movement.
From 1925 to 1931, it was the nascent period of Taiwanese literature. Although some creations appeared, most of them were still in the imitation stage. During this period, in addition to the above-mentioned debates about old and new literature, there was also discussion and promotion of "Taiwanese vernacular" and "native literature" around 1930, which aimed to strengthen the local awareness of Taiwanese literature and implicitly resisted Japan's assimilation policy. This slogan had a great influence on the subsequent development of Taiwanese literature and led to many controversies. In 1932, Huang Cuncheng, Lai He and others established the "Nanyin" Society and founded the "Nanyin" magazine. "Taiwan Xinmin Daily" established the "Study and Art Column", and literary journals such as "Formosa" (founded in Tokyo) came out. In 1934, Taiwanese cultural figures with strong national consciousness initiated the formation of the island-wide literary and art organization Taiwan Literature and Art Alliance, and founded two periodicals, "Taiwan Literature and Art" and "Forerunner", claiming to serve as "art for life". The Creation School obviously absorbed the literary ideas of the Mainland Literary Research Association and the Creation Society, recruited writers of various tendencies, and published a number of works of relatively high artistic standards.
On July 7, 1937, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China. Shortly afterwards, it forcibly implemented the "Imperial Civilization Movement" in Taiwan in an attempt to replace and annihilate Taiwan's Chinese culture with Japan's Yamato culture. In order to implement the policy of racial assimilation, Japanese is stipulated as the only legal language in Taiwan, and even lifestyles such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation are forcibly Japaneseized. In the tight net of fascist cultural autocracy, Taiwan's new literature movement suffered a fatal setback. Most new literature journals were banned, and many progressive writers were either arrested and imprisoned, or had to remain dormant and shut down their writing. From then until 1945, Taiwan's modern literature was in decline. During this period, some writers were influenced by the colonial consciousness and acted as imperial literati, producing some pale and withered works with the flavor of "imperial people". Only a few writers with national integrity endured the oppression and wrote some excellent works, allowing Taiwanese literature to survive. For example, the short stories "Mr. Mom" ??(Wu Zhuoliu), "Mother Goose Gets Married" (Yang Kui), "Feng Shui" (Lu Heruo), the novel "Orphans of Asia" (Wu Zhuoliu), etc., all have relatively complete artistic conception and profound nostalgia. National sentiment was particularly valuable at that time.
The Japanese invaders surrendered in August 1945, and the Kuomintang government moved to Taiwan in December 1949, marking the early stage of Taiwan's recovery. During this period, Japanese newspapers and periodicals were abolished, and many writers who were accustomed to writing in Japanese switched to writing in Chinese. The jerky writing inevitably affected the artistic quality of their works. However, the entire literary world is once again reviewing the past and looking forward to the future. The topic of "local literature" once again aroused heated discussions, and after 1947, creation gradually recovered.
Taiwan’s modern literature occurred slightly later than the mainland’s literary revolution, but it roughly followed the same pace as the development of Chinese modern literature. The difference is that the development of modern literature in Taiwan faces greater resistance and conditions are more difficult. The racial assimilation policy during the Japanese occupation era forced writers to write in Japanese. Especially after 1939, Chinese was banned. Most authors could only write in Japanese, which tried to limit the anti-colonial consciousness in Taiwanese literature. This hindered Taiwan's new literature. And the bruises were extremely serious. Taiwan's modern literature is generally underdeveloped and its artistic level is not high, which is related to this. It is also an unavoidable fact that there are some elements of Japanese culture in Taiwanese literature. Despite this, the development of Taiwanese literature in modern times has still achieved valuable results. Most of Taiwan's modern literature is based on realism and generally has a strong rural flavor. Among them, the literary themes of longing for home and country, resistance to oppression, and the wandering consciousness of being a citizen of a weak country are most frequently presented. When reading Taiwanese literature, there is always an air of sadness and depression that lingers. Taiwan’s modern literature has gained the most from novels, followed by poetry, and prose and drama are relatively weak. Taiwan's modern literature, as a tributary, has undoubtedly enriched the landscape of Chinese modern literature with its characteristics.
2. Representative writers of Taiwan’s modern literature
The first thing that should be mentioned is Lai He (1894-1943), who is known as the “Father of Taiwan’s New Literature”. He was the first and most powerful person to inspire the spirit of Taiwan's new literature, which was based on criticism of real society and the search for the roots of local culture. He set up the first banner for local literature in the province and determined the direction that writers from the province should take.
Lai He is also one of the founders of Taiwan’s new poetry. He tried to document and express emotions through poetry, and the materials were often major events that happened in reality. For example, "Sacrifice under Enlightenment" (1925) records the anti-Japanese events of the "Er Village Sugarcane Farmers Combination" in the form of a narrative poem.
"Wandering Song" (1930) is based on the incident in the 1930s when Japanese colonists plundered farmland and forced farmers on the original farmland to go bankrupt. "Southern Elegy" is based on the "Wushe Incident". "The Peak of Low Pressure" (1931) describes the Changhua Anti-Japanese Defense War. In the latter poem, Lai He yearns for social change and the storm washes away the dirt in the world: "This cold world, / What is the use of leaving it? / This hurricane that destroys everything, / How great and majestic it is! / I am alone in the hurricane, / open my throat and try my best, / shout loudly to praise this destruction, / and bless the unknown human world in the future. " This storm-type emotional catharsis is majestic and can be expressed in one sentence. Feeling the times and worrying about the barriers of the country.
If Lai He revealed the sufferings of the people mostly out of humanitarian sympathy, Yang Kui (1905-1985) paid more attention to the fate of the proletarians and social changes from the perspective of historical change.
The special historical situation of Taiwan during the Japanese occupation has been truly demonstrated in the works of many realist writers. Wu Zhuoliu (1900-1976) is one of the most outstanding historical recorders. His novels are of social significance. A generalization of the nature of aesthetics.
Among the Taiwanese writers during the Japanese occupation era, Lu Heruo (1914-1947) was one of the Taiwanese writers who pursued the local spirit more persistently and made outstanding achievements in art. Lu Heruo often describes the contradictions or difficulties in daily family life in rural areas to show how social changes lead to moral and psychological changes. His works are all written in Japanese, and most of them were not translated into Chinese until the 1990s.
Another little-known writer with great artistic personality is Long Yingzong (1911- ). The description of the work is delicate and sharp, the style is gorgeous and melancholy, and it has the meaning of the end of the century. From it, we can see the extensive application of modern European and American novel techniques. He also has some novels based on the fate of "daughter-in-law", which mostly show women's tenacious and healthy vitality. Different from the hesitation and trance in his intellectual-themed novels, such works give people a sense of strength to bear hardships. feel. From the perspective of open exploration of novel art, Long Yingzong is a noteworthy one.
The more accomplished writers during the Japanese occupation period include: Yang Yunping (representative work "Guest") who paid attention to the exploration of novel techniques, Zhu Dianren (representative work "Memorial Tree") who was good at writing psychological novels, and those who served as Japanese occupation novelists. Zhong Lihe, who serves as a bridge between the literary tradition of the times and the local literature of the 1960s (representative works of "Oleander", the "Hometown" series of novels and "Original People"), etc. In terms of poetry, there are Yang Hua (representative poem collections "Black Tide Collection" and "Morning Light Collection"), Wang Shilang (representative poem "People Traveling on the Desert"), Qiu Chunyuan ("Fossil Love"), and Wu Xinrong represented by " The "Salt Zone" poet group and the modern poetry of the "Windmill Poetry Society" represented by Yang Chichang, etc. Among them, Yang Hua's poetry achievements are more outstanding. His "Black Tide Collection" is a portrayal of the miserable soul when he was in prison. Although he was hesitant, he was unwilling to sink: "I want to escape my soul from sorrow/to cry out people's sweet nightmares/I want to escape from sadness Squeeze out my heart/to fill the chest of the young man who has lost his heart!" The works included in "Morning Light Collection" are fresh and beautiful, and pay attention to the management of images, such as: "The dark sky after the rain,/It is quiet and quiet, / Like a conscience washed by the fountain of tears!" ("Morning Light Collection" 11) Another example is "In the garden of humor, / is scattered all over the ground, / these are fragmentary poems!" ("Morning Light Collection" 6) ) These poems are similar to the Bing Xin-style poems of the May 4th Movement period. They pay more attention to personal inner feelings and the capture of impressions, and are philosophical. They are obviously also influenced by Japanese haiku.
Taiwan’s modern literature, as a branch of Chinese modern literature, has its own significant uniqueness. It is mainly literature that was produced with difficulty under Japanese colonial rule. Although there are different creative styles and approaches, its overall feature is the longing for the hometown and country. Anti-colonial rule - pursuing hometown - identifying with the motherland has always been the creative complex of most modern Taiwanese writers. The nostalgia of losing roots often becomes a driving force for Taiwan's modern literary creation. Sticking to reality and facing the public is the literary philosophy of many modern Taiwanese writers. Realism has become a common creative trend, while romanticism and modernism have not been fully developed. From a stylistic point of view, novel writing has become a strong point. Because the Japanese colonialists implemented a linguistic colonial policy in Taiwan and even banned writing in Chinese for a time, there is a "bilingual phenomenon" in Taiwan's modern literature. A considerable number of writers can only write in Japanese and then gradually translate them into Chinese. Language troubles have obviously also hurt Taiwanese literature. After entering the contemporary era, Taiwanese literature has made new developments, and due to its long-term isolation from the mainland, it has formed some new literary characteristics that are very different from the mainland. In any case, modern Chinese literature should not ignore Taiwan’s unique experience and achievements.