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Title |
The Pursuit of the Subjectivity of Taiwan’s Culture: Yang Kui’s Editorial Strategy on Chinese Literature Series |
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Author |
Huang, Hui-Chen |
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Chairperson & Associate Professor, Department of Taiwan Languages and Communication, National United University |
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Abstract |
Since July 1st, 1947, the six volume books Chinese Literature Series (Chinese-Japanese bilingual edition) edited by Yang Kui have been published in succession by Tunghua Books Company, but one of volumes The Last Days of Huang, Kung-Chun has probably never been published. This paper intends to compare these already published volumes Chinese Literature Series with Yang Kui’s later edited publications Taiwanese Literature Series, with a concern on the manuscripts he left related to these books, in order to explore his editorial strategy on Chinese Literature Series. This study has three findings. First of all, there exists a great difference between Chinese Literature Series and Taiwanese Literature Series: the latter whose articles deal with the representation of the phenomena in the early post-war Taiwan society display the unique nature of Taiwan’s culture, but the former which contain the pre-war works of New Literature from Taiwan and Mainland China do not. Second, in spite of this difference, they both not only give weight to the realistic literature works produced by left-wing writers, but also demonstrate the fighting spirit as well as the tenacious pursuit of democracy. Finally, in the particular space and time of the early post-war Taiwan, the books Chinese Literature Series associate the anti-colonial literature created in the period of Japanese occupation with the works produced during the post-war period, and furthermore, the books also introduce the new literature works bred from the liberal thought of the May-Fourth Movement to Taiwan. These editorial arrangements were designed to criticize the political situation at that time. With these three findings, this paper concludes that Yang Kui’s Chinese Literature Series reveal his concern for the future of Taiwan, his protest against the political discrimination of Chinese Government, and his steady attitude of resistance toward over-all sinicization (Zhonggouhua). The editorial strategy of Chinese Literature Series clearly indicates Yang Kui’s positive insistence on the Subjectivity of Taiwan’s culture during the post-war period of Taiwan. |
