Taiwan nativist literature
Taiwan nativist literature. Xiangtu, literally meaning the hometown soil, symbolizes nativism; and Wenxue is literature. Nativist Literature refers to a genre in Taiwanese literature. It derived from the Taiwanese New Literature Movement under the Japanese rule in the 1920s, died down after 1937 when the Japanese government strengthened its colonial policy, and recaptured public attention in the 1970s. Taiwan nativist literature uses literary realism as its main narrative to depict people, events and subjects that happen in Taiwan, aiming at reflecting the particularity of the local society. The nativist novels usually depict the struggles for existence and predicaments of identity of the Taiwanese people with a humanistic tone. They tend to base on the life experiences of their authors, and reflect their worldviews.
The Taiwan New Literature movement
Under the colonial modernization in Taiwan, through colonial education, study in Japan and mainland China, Taiwan’s first generation intellectuals were informed of modern politics, society, culture and ideas of the West. They embraced concepts such as national self-determination, democracy, freedom, and socialism. They were also inspired by various events such as the, socialist movement and leftist movement in Japan, and the May Fourth Movement, the New Culture Movement, and anti-imperialism movement in China. Since the 1920s, Taiwanese intellectuals had moved away from violent resistance into organized and non-violent, cultural, political and social struggles against the Japanese government.In 1920, Cai Huiru et al. founded the Xin Min Society in Tokyo in January and published Taiwan Youth magazine in July, in order to promote cultural enlightenment. In response, Jiang Weishui/Chiang Wei-shui et al. founded the Taiwan Culture Association in Taiwan in 1921, which was the prelude of the anti-colonial and national emancipatory movements there. The Association shared the same anti-imperialist spirit with the May Fourth Movement in China. The literature movement was brought into Taiwan as a tool to exercise cultural enlightenment, increase education standards and to awaken the public to stand up against the colonial authority.
The Taiwan New Literature movement incorporated the May Fourth Literature model, engaging with language reform and literary realism. First, it tried to synchronize speaking with writing by promoting the use of modern Chinese as opposed to classical Chinese. The use of modern Chinese could help increase the general literacy and keep connection with mainland China, and it symbolized the erection of the New and the abandon of the Old. Zhang Wojun was one of the main advocates who positioned Taiwan literature as a branch of Chinese literature, tried to bring in more Chinese elements into Taiwan literature, and wanted to use modern Chinese to reform the Taiwanese vernacular. Second, as being positioned as a branch of Chinese literature, the Movement aimed at liberating Taiwan from Japanese colonizers with an intention to return to China. It followed the anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist realistic style of the May Fourth literature. Here, the use of modern Chinese against the then official language of Taiwan—Japanese also played an important role to support the advocates’ Chinese identity.
The Rise of Taiwan nativist literature
However, the ultimate goal of the Taiwan New Literature movement was not to preserve Chinese language, culture or literature, but to awaken the Taiwanese public and to liberate Taiwan. The colonial Taiwan had a different situation than mainland China regarding to its colonial policy, social awareness and natural environment etc. Hence, that whether the May Fourth model was completely suitable for Taiwan was under challenge. Soon as the Movement started in 1920, there were intellectuals like Zhuang Chuisheng who challenged whether modern Chinese was compatible with the local situation in Taiwan, and Lian Wenqing who underlined the importance to study and utilize Taiwan vernacular since it was the most popularized language in Taiwan. In 1925, Huang Chengcong in his essay ‘We should establish a particular Taiwanese culture’ argued that although Taiwan shared the same bloodline with China in aspects like race, society, culture and custom, the unique geography and environment of Taiwan had cultivated a particularity in its own culture in its 200-year history; and especially after it was ceded to Japan, Taiwan was different from China in its society and culture under the Japanese rule; all these experiences had made the native-ity of Taiwan easily perceptible. Huang suggested that considering this native-ity, Taiwan should not totally and uncritically accept Chinese culture, but adapt the imported culture according to the native reality and so establish a particular Taiwanese culture.In 1927, the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation broke down. Chiang Kai-shek ordered a crackdown on the workers’ and peasants’ movements in China. That the Chinese anti-imperialist movement reached a deadlock disappointed the Taiwanese intellectuals. Meanwhile, the Japanese authority tightened the colonial policy which cut off the connection and support from mainland China. Furthermore, by February 1931, almost all the anti-Japanese organizations in Taiwan had been dissolved. More intellectuals turned to the literature movement, which was less annoying to the Japanese. The Taiwan New Literature movement reached its heyday, and the nativism in literature also started to rise.
Taiwan nativist literature in the 1930s
In 1930 and 1931, Huang Shihui, followed by Guo Qiusen, launched the Nativist Literature Polemic and the Taiwanese Vernacular Polemic, which marked the full bloom of the Taiwan New Literature movement. According to Ye Shitao, the Polemics showed that the object of the Taiwan New Literature reform had moved from forms into contents, and Taiwan literature began to move towards independence from the Chinese New Literature Movement.The Nativist Literature Polemic
In 1930, Huang Shihui published the essay ‘Why not promote Taiwan nativist literature’ in the Wu Ren newspaper, gaining some debate. In the next year, Huang and Guo Qiusen published essays ‘Talk about nativist literature again’ and ‘A proposal to develop Taiwanese vernacular’ respectively in Taiwan News, triggering a large-scale debate on whether it was feasible to use Taiwanese vernacular in writing Taiwan nativist literature.Huang’s opinion was similar to idea of popularization upheld by the worldwide proletarian literature movement which saw the toiling masses as the main audience of literary creations. Huang insisted that only by using Taiwanese vernacular to write could literature penetrate into the masses and have influence on them. He also contended that Taiwan is the home of Taiwanese writers, so they should treat Taiwan and its public as the focal points in their literature. A colonial fact about Taiwan was that the official language was Japanese; modern Chinese could not be taught in the education system. Furthermore, Standard Chinese, which is based on the Beijing vernacular, was different from the Taiwanese vernacular which was widely used in Taiwan in those days. Modern Chinese, like Japanese, stayed as a language used in the small intellectual circle. Insisting on using modern Chinese to write could not attain the expected result of synchronizing writing with speaking like it did in mainland China. In other words, modern Chinese could not penetrate into the masses and fulfil its mission of the dissemination of culture. Guo in his essay illustrated the fact that Japanese, classical and modern Chinese were all difficult to be popularized among the masses, and responded the Huang’s stand by suggesting promoting the use of Taiwanese vernacular in order to eradicate illiteracy and disperse culture. Guo also proposed to subjugate writing to speaking. He started a special column called ‘Taiwanese vernacular attempt’, where he created many new ‘Chinese’ characters to match those words specifically used in the Taiwanese vernacular. He proved that it was feasible to write in Taiwanese vernacular. In summary, in the polemics, nativism advocates contended that firstly, nativist literature should be written in Taiwanese vernacular and secondly, authors should reflect the reality of Taiwan in their works and highlight the existence of the nativity of Taiwan.
On the contrary, the opponents in the polemics who did not think literature should be written in Taiwanese vernacular argued that Taiwan and China should stay in one perspective; literary works written in Taiwanese vernacular lacked universality across China; and being too linguistically and culturally Taiwanese would hinder the cultural exchange between China and Taiwan. They insisted that Taiwan was part of China and it was not necessary to start a Taiwan nativist literature. Some opponents even saw Taiwanese vernacular as a primitive and crude language, so it was not good enough to be used in literature. Most of the opponents insisted in using modern Chinese. The opponents included Liao Yuwen, Lin Kefu, Zhu Dianren and so on. Nevertheless, despite of the difference, opponents and advocates of nativism shared the same standpoints of anti-Japanese colonization.
Publications, Societies, and Active Authors
From 1926 to 1937, literary publications and arts societies gradually sprang up in Taiwan. Most of them had anti-Japanese sentiments, and aimed at encouraging patriotism among the Taiwanese public. In 1927, Chen Manying, Lai He and Chen Shaoxin founded the New Student Study Society, while overseas students in Japan, Xu Naichang, Yang Yunping, Yang Gui et al. organized the Social Science Study Group. In 1932, Zhuang Chuisheng, Ia̍p Êng-cheng et al. published the Southern Voice magazine. In March 1933, overseas students Zhang Wenhuan, Wu Yongfu, Wang Baiyuan, Liu Jie, Su Weixiong, Shi Xuexi et al. founded the Taiwan Arts Society in Tokyo, and published the Formosa magazine. In October 1933, Guo Qiusen, Liao Hanchen, Huang Deshi, Wang Shilang, Chen Junyu, Lin Kefu et al. founded the Taiwan Literature Association in Taipei, and published the Starting Force magazine which was later renamed First Line. In 1934, the Taiwan Arts Society and the Taiwan Literature Association amalgamated into the Taiwan Literature and Arts League, and the League published the Taiwan Literature and Arts magazine. In 1935, Yang Kui and his wife left the Taiwan Literature and Arts magazine, and founded the Taiwan New Literature Society with Ye Tao and his wife. They published the New Taiwanese Literature magazine.The active Taiwanese authors during this period included Lai He, Zhang Wojun, Yang Yunping, Yang Shouyu, Cai Choudong, Zhu Dianren, Xu Gu, Guo Qiusen, Yang Hua, Wang Shilang, Zhang Qingtang, Zhang Shenqie, Huang Deshi, Wu Yongfu, Wu Tianshang, Wang Baiyuan et al.