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Title |
Cold War Cultural Politics in the Circulation and Reception of Wu Zhuoliu's Literature in the United States |
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Author |
Wang, Hui-Zhen |
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Professor, Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Tsing Hua University |
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Abstract |
During the Cold War, Wu Zhuoliu's Wuhuaguo (Fig Tree, the "Lin Bai edition") was banned in Taiwan, prompting the author to search for publication opportunities abroad. Through intermediaries in Japan, the work entered Taiwanese American communities in the United States and appeared — either in full or in excerpted form — in a range of diasporic periodicals. These outlets included the "Formosa Series" Formosa Weekly, the Baodiao movement publication Diaoyutai Bulletin, the pro-independence journal Independent Taiwan, the hometown-association newsletter Wang Chun-Feng, and the self-determination-oriented Grassroots. Despite their divergent ideological orientations and publishing aims — including unification-leaning, independence-focused, and self-determination platforms — all of these periodicals successively featured or reprinted Wu's literary works. Drawing on press and periodical studies, this paper examines how Taiwanese readers in the United States interpreted Wu Zhuoliu's literature within two shifting political contexts: the diplomatic crises of the 1970s — most notably the Republic of China's withdrawal from the United Nations — and the island's burgeoning dangwai (non-KMT opposition) movements in the 1980s. By reconstructing the media landscape in which Wu's works circulated, the study clarifies the cultural politics that shaped the publication, transmission, and reception of Wu Zhuoliu's literature in the United States. |
