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Title |
Cultural China, geographic Taiwan──“Folk context” of Hsiao Li-Hung's works in the 1970s |
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Author |
Yang, Tsui |
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Associate Professor, Department of Taiwanese Literature, Providence University |
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Abstract |
From the 1970s, at first the cultural discusser of “Native Taiwan” is a substitute for “Cultural China”, the two codes of “Native Taiwan” and “Cultural China” have multi-layeredness in literature. We can take the background as a basic to study the “Native locality” of Hsiao Li-Hung's works in the 1970s, from the work of “Leng chin chien” the codes of geographic Taiwan coexist with the Cultural China, and turn into a kind of fundamental key in her creation. Hsiao Li-Hung said that the reason to create “Kuei hua hsiang” and “A Thousand Moons on A Thousand Rivers” is to sigh the transiyion of times, and the lost of cultural spirit. “Native Writing” is her self-examination of modernity, her works are not only presented the ambiguous dispute between Cultural China（Fatherland）and geographic Taiwan（Motherland）, but also characterized the context of age. The space images such as the sea, harbor, pa-chang river, fish farm, salt pan, and an embankment were composed a special folk context in the Hsiao Li-Hung's works. The description about “Cultural China” in “Leng chin chien” were traditional drama, tonality, feminine education and the female beauty; in “Kuei hua hsiang” were about a set of Chinese feminine body discusser, such as bound feet, tuan-chang and chastity. There is a very strong criticism to the constraint of Cultural China's manner and education in “Kuei hua hsiang”. On the one side, there have more concrete views of geographic Taiwan and full of deep feeling in folk, the concept of “motherland” is getting full and rich by combining motherland and clannish relationship in “A Thousand Moons on A Thousand Rivers”. On the other side, there also has a vivid prospect of Cultural China, and the basic feminine image in this novel is “good woman has good virtue” by describing the customers, manners and the classics of feminine education. Cultural China is distinguished from others as patriarchal culture, and the image of “fatherland” is bright. “Cultural China” and “geographic Taiwan” interweave a multi-layered image to be a folk context fundamental key in the 1970s novels of Hsiao Li-Hung. |
