Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, NCCU

Title The legacy of performance of Taiwanese Gezixi in Singapore in the 1960s Author Tsai, Hsin-Hsin Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University Abstract In January 1932, a Taiwanese troupe called Feng Huang Nan Nu Pan (Phoenix Men and Women troupe) was invited to perform in Indonesia. When they passed through Selatpore, they were also invited to perform in the Li-Chun yuan theater in Chinatown by overseas Chinese merchants from southern Fujian. Since then, they started the first page of Gezixi's performance in Singapore. The former names of Singapore include Selatpore, Sin Chew, Sin island, etc. Singapore was part of Straits Settlements and later became a member of Federation of Malaysia before becoming Republic of Singapore in 1965. On account of the geographical connection between Singapore and Malyasia and the fact that there were many fujian immigrants living together, gezixi that using hokkien dialect was deeply loved by audiences from Southern Fujian. They not only invited gezixi troupes one after another to perform, but also cultivate a large number of gezixi's local fans. It catalyzed the transformation and establishment of local gezixi troupes. At the end of 1941, when the Pacific War broke out, the communication of gezixi troupes with Singapore was interrupted. After World War II, as the international situation returned stable, based on political identity and commercial economic considerations, some troupes such as Hsin T'ai Kuang, Po Hua, Mu tan kui, Jih Yueh yuan, San Hung Chu, were invited again to perform in Singapore in the 1960s. Due to the fact that it has been a long time till now, it becomes difficult to collect and record historical data of performance in this period. This paper synthesizes newspaper advertisements, literature and historical materials, official documents, playlists and records, and oral interviews to comprehensively construct the historical impression of Taiwanese Gezixi's performance in Sinchew in the 1960s, and also explores and analyzes the network constructed between troupes' employers and fans in Singapore and Malaysia, the flow between material records and broadcast media, and the communication between Taiwanese troupes and Singaporean local opera troupes, etc.

Title Hakka Women's Long River of History: On Female Care for History in Xie Shuang-tian's Mei Cun Xin Qu Author Tai, Hua-Hsuan Associate Professor, Department of Taiwanese Literature, Aletheia University Abstract This paper discusses Xie Shuang-tian's Mei Cun Xin Qu (1974-1975) in the context of Roman-fleuve. Although Mei Cun Xin Qu meets what Yeh Shihtao calls “the trilogy-styled scope of big river,” the novel has attracted rather limited attention over the years. This is possibly because its historical perspective does not fit in with the postcolonial historical perspective of Taiwanese localist Roman-fleuve in the 1990s. Revisiting and investigating the original French Roman-fleuve discourse introduced to Taiwan and translated by Yeh Shihtao in the 1960s, this paper argues that Mei Cun Xin Qu is not only a historical novel characterized by Taiwanese Hakka culture but also speaks to Yeh's historical and humanistic concern of world literature. It is quasi the first Taiwanese female Roman-fleuve. Thus, even though Xie's Chinese nationalistic view of history is not compatible with later localist literary interpretations of Taiwanese Roman-fleuve, the novel should not be excluded from the genre. A resulting reflection is whether the Roman-fleuve framework constructed by Taiwanese localists with Taiwanese consciousness since the 1990s should be adjusted. Furthermore, from the perspective of gender consciousness, this paper examines the case of Xie's Mei Cun Xin Qu, pointing out that unlike male Roman-fleuve’s prototypical monotone of nationalism and female traits, female Roman-fleuve contrarily presents more diverse aspects of care and concern. Xie also departs from the male-centric thinking of male Roman-fleuve by writing with female consciousness and depicting Hakka women who become the economic sources of their families and who connect with the land. In other words, Hakka women are no longer foils for men in Xie's portrayal, nor are they merely symbolic beings of Taiwanese national consciousness.

Title Historical Memory and Traumatic Writing: Kwang-chih Chang's The Story of A Taiwanese Man and Representation Mechanism of Chang's Novels in the 1980s Author Lo, Shih-Yun Assistant Professor, School of General Education, Chihlee University of Technology Abstract Kwang-chih Chang was a renowned archaeologist and anthropologist and also the son of Wo-chun Chang, a pioneer of Taiwan New Literature Movement. Kwang-chih Chang returned to Taiwan from Beijing in the end of 1946 and was later sent to prison because of his involvement in the April 6th incident. After he was released from the prison, he dedicated himself to anthropology research and carried out a study in the United States. He published several works in Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News in the early stage of the postwar period and had been publishing novels under the pseudonym of Hsiang Wu until the 1980s. His memoir The Story of A Taiwanese Man describes his early life, how he ended up in prison because of the April 6th incident, and the unique postwar history of Taiwan. His postwar works portray his life history in Beijing during the war and in Taiwan after the war, intertwined with the documentation and traumatic memories of the generation. Accordingly, this paper focuses on Chang's memoir The Story of A Taiwanese Man and his novels published in the 1980s, with supplementary discussion on novels and essays of other authors in the early stage of the postwar period, to reveal the historical memory and traumatic writing of this Taiwanese man wandering among China, Taiwan, and the United States. This paper first demonstrates the social situation in the early stage of the postwar period and Chang's life experiences. It continues by discussing descriptions in The Story of A Taiwanese Man about the situations in Beijing during wartime and in Taiwan from after the war to the imposition of martial law, including his traumatic experience in wartime life, the February 28 incident, and the April 6th incident. By comparing this memoir with his novels in the 1980s, this paper analyzes the interaction between and reorganization of Chang's life memory and literary representation to reflect on how traumatic writing has been transformed into meaningful cultural criticism and self-healing. With Chang's writing, this paper is intended to reshape the nation's fractured history and more importantly grasps the mental images of Taiwanese people in the early postwar period, which contributes to the retrospective reflection on the Taiwanese society then.

Title “Poésie” and the “Esprit Nouveau”of Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period: Huukei, Marri, and Le Moulin Author Chang, Shih-Chin Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University Abstract This paper examines Japanese literature magazines published in Taiwan in the first half of the 1930s and explores how modern Taiwanese poetry developed regarding both form and method through the concepts of “poésie” and the “esprit nouveau.” By expanding the scope of historical materials, this paper outlines the multiple connections between the poetry circles of Taiwan and Japan and explains the competition and cooperation between different publications and poetry associations in Taiwan, thereby observing changes in Taiwan’s modern poetry circles in the first half of the 1930s. In the early 1930s, there were at least three magazines that introduced the concepts of “poésie” and the “esprit nouveau”: Huukei (風景, 1930), Marri (茉莉, 1932-1943), and Le Moulin (風車, 1933-1934). They introduced the statements of Haruyama Yukio (春山行夫) , Nishiwaki Junzaburō (西脇順三郎) , Takenaka Kyūshichi (竹中久七) , and others in Japanese modernist poetry journals such as Poetry and Poetry Theory (詩與詩論) and Rien (リアン) and published works by poets such as Anzai Fuyue (安西冬衛) and Takiguchi Takeshi (瀧口武士) who initiated the "Short Poetry Movement" and "New Prose Poetry Movement" in Dalian, which was under Japanese colonial rule. Editors of these magazines were both Taiwanese and Japanese. They were dissatisfied with the poetry circle of Taiwan at the time and exploring new poetry methods through the concepts of “poésie” and the “esprit nouveau.” Through the works of these magazines, we can further clarify the construction of the modern poetry circle of Taiwanese poetry history.