臺灣文學虛擬博物館

A fragment of stolen time and place lives within catch phrase.

How would you define Taiwan Literature in one, brief phrase?

 

SURVIVAL: Literature as Resilience through Crisis 

Literature is a place of solace for battered and tormented souls.  During the Japanese colonial and postwar periods, writers were left with words to confront the fateful yet turbulent eras of uncertainty.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20100050004

Syong Yi-ping: The translingual generation, and the barriers yet uncrossed (in chinese)

Summary : As part of the translingual generation, Chen Hsiu-hsi was a woman who was able to empathize with the loneliness that belonged to that generation. Cultivated in Japanese, this generation became muted when the Nationalist government demanded that publications should only be made in Chinese.

 

DECISIONS: Literature as Unconceived Alternatives

Words bear witness to the writers’ experience. They inscribe a biography of growth and transformations. Yet, this seemingly singular path can also serve as an indication for an alternative route for the future. Literature embodies not only a personal reality but also the collective existence of an era.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20070020001

Chen Ling-yang: Always there, but imperceptible-- a rattan chair and his Yeh Shih-tao (in chinese)

Summary : Having arranged for his wife and children to be cared for in her parents’ home in Zuoying, he settled in the dormitory alone, got his hands on a stack of writing paper, a few ball-point pens, a desk, a shabby rattan chair, and began again on his writing. After writing several million words of stories, he eventually came to realize that, cultivated in Japanese literature, no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to produce sophisticated literature in Chinese. He then turned the focus of his writing to criticism and literary history.

 

TANGENTS: Literature as Borders Transcended 

Writing reveals the variance of thoughts, and pushes one to embrace diverse opinions beyond one’s comfort zone. In the discourse with other authors, writers experience different points of view, and in turn discern their own identities.

 

NMTL Collection |  NMTL20070160001

Wu Jyun Sian: Who is it that has yet to speak-- Li Shuangze's "Reparation for Second World War" (in chinese)

Summary : Li Shuangze was a catalyst for Taiwan’s folk song movement. His work, stance, emotions, and efforts are still profoundly relevant on this island that he had cared about so deeply. Reflecting on “the nature of the self” and experimenting with how to “realize reality”, Li Shuangze’s essay is an embodiment of the author’s conviction and talent.

 

CONVERGENCE: Literature as an Accumulation of Emotions

Literature serves as a witness to flourishing ideas in a changing world. Aboard the boat of literature, writers navigate a turbulent world without ceasing to accumulate the energy that will inevitably unleash. Regardless of the source, all streams flow in the same direction: the future.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20070560013

Liu Cheng Hsin: Composing in life and persisting under restrictions-- Ai Wen’s cheongsam and her matchless existence (in chinese)

Summary : Under the gentle demeanor of her cheongsam, Ai Wen firmly committed to her ideals. She had a passion for life rivaling the heat of a volcano. The intensity of this fervor seemed to manifest in the maroon-colored cheongsam that she had designed and sewn herself.

 

ENDEAVOR: Literature as Refusal to Conform

Unwilling to surrender to the constraints of reality, writers break the deadlock by constructing infinite views with their boundless imagination, and thus, they become seekers in the unknown.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20070360240

Celan Lin: An augury for a faraway journey-- Sanmao’s student card* (in chinese)

Summary : Sanmao’s destination for when she skipped school was not the same as others’, who might instead have gone to the arcade, the juice bar, or the book rental shop. Sanmao skipped school to go to the public cemetery in Liuzhangli. "Among the clusters of ‘dirt buns’** in Liuzhangli, I buried my unpleasant school life." She was not fond of graveyards, but the dead didn’t speak, and she could read in peace.

*Sanmao is also known as Echo or Echo Chan.  **A colloquial term for graves.

 

VOICE: Literature as Silent Articulation

Silent yet resounding, words vocalize the writers’ opinions and sentiments. 

The pen is their instrument, and words are their songs. Literature carries their legacy into the future.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20070330001

Wu Ying-tong: The sun has yet to rise, let’s put on the last show in Taiwanese (in chinese)

Summary : Full of ambition and ideals, these highly spirited youths injected their love of art, society and this island into the theatre. They aimed to cast light in a time of darkness with their production, Before Dawn.

 

US: Literature as Identities in the Collective

Using the power of words, writers express their identification with the nation, the land, and the communities. Here, they sought solace, fought injustice and found where they belong.

 

NMTL Collection | NMTL20120210146

Yang Shuang-tzu: The ambition of a Taiwanese teenage girl: “I will one day receive the same treatment as the Japanese!” (in chinese)

Summary : 

After graduating from university, Yang Qianhe* found a position as an assistant at the professor’s research lab in the former College of Science and Agriculture, National Taiwan University. However, she discovered a significant disparity and quit her job in a fury: in Taiwan, back in 1941, the Japanese residents (called naichi-jin), received 60 percent additional salary compared to Taiwanese residents (hontō-jin).

*Also known as Ho Yang Lin, Yang Chian-ho.