|
Title |
Shared Struggles and Lessons from Others: Mutual Perceptions between Taiwanese and Korean Literary Circles during the Cold War |
|
Author |
Choi, Mal-Soon |
|
Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University |
|
|
Abstract |
In 1948, South Korea and the Republic of China established diplomatic relations. During the Cold War, the two countries regarded each other as brotherly nations, jointly opposing the Chinese Communist Party and North Korea. Frequent exchanges occurred at both official and civilian levels, and literary interaction also developed within this context. Through organizations such as International PEN and writers' associations, mutual visits and literary exchanges between writers were promoted. This article focuses on two writer delegations that took place in 1957 and 1976. The former involved Korean writers visiting Taiwan, resulting in the publication A Travelogue of Taiwan: Today's Free China, which portrayed Taiwan's societal development and its image as Free China. The latter featured Taiwanese poets visiting Korea, leading to the publication A Date with Snowflakes, which expressed their impressions of Korean culture and history. A comparison of these two visits reveals that Korean writers in the 1950s focused primarily on Taiwan's national development and social progress, reflecting a clearly future-oriented perspective. In contrast, the Taiwanese poets in the 1970s viewed Korea through a lens of cultural self-reflection, presenting a past-oriented perspective. This contrast highlights the impact of changing times on Taiwan-Korea exchanges during the early and late Cold War periods, as well as the influence of developments in modern Chinese history. It also illustrates the dual aspects of anticommunist consciousness across different periods: on the one hand, emphasizing the goal of building a modern state superior to communist powers through development and progress; on the other hand, expressing nostalgia for traditional culture damaged by communist regimes. Although these two stances differ in orientation, both are rooted in the anti-communist ideology of the Cold War era. |
