Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, NCCU

Title The Interactive Meaning of Han-wen, From Fujian to Modern Taiwan and East Asia: Take “Farewell, Mi-Xi Xian Sheng” (Son Mi-Xi Xian Sheng Shi Wen Ji) as an example Author Huang, Mei-E Professor, Taiwan Literature Institute, National Taiwan University Abstract This article focus on the interactive relationship between modern Taiwan and East Asia’s Han-wen works. Instead of taking local literary field as the research realm, I focus on the phenomenon in “Fujian”, tried to clarify the Interaction of Han-wen Literature between Taiwan/ Japan/ China, what role Taiwanese intellectual played, and its meaning. The reason why I chose Fujian as research realm, is because the policy of the “Small Three Links” and “Cycle Economy Thought and the Construction of Economic Zone at Western Bank of Taiwan Straits”, makes Fujian not only in the political but also in literature field became an eye-catching area. But if we examine the research achievement, we’ll find that most of them considered that Taiwan literature was influenced by, or at least originated in Fujian. Although it’s partly true, but it’s only partly true. In fact, during the modern period, especially between 1895-1911, because of the complex political situation such as Japanese invasion of Taiwan, the Nanshin-ron, and the fact that Fujian became a part of Japan in 1898, thus, there had different historical and political dimension such as “Japanese ruled”, “late Qing” and “MeiJi”, which made the literary field more complex and imbroglio. In order to research the circumstance of this period’s literary field, I chosen “Farewell, Mi-Xi Xian Sheng” (Son Mi-Xi Xian Sheng Shi Wen Ji) as an example, hope it will help me clarify these phenomenon above.

Title When the East Encounters the Orient: Desert Romance and Its Transcultural Imagination Author Lin, Fang-Mei Professor, Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, National Taiwan Normal University Abstract This study intends to examine and explore “Desert romance” published in Taiwan since 2000. As a sub-genre of English romance, desert romance is also called “Sheik romance.” The storyline begins with a white girl who travels to a Middle-East desert, is abducted by an Arab sheik, and the two of them fall in love. I aim to explore in what ways desert romance reproduces and in the meantime transforms Orientalism as defined by Said. Desert romance in Taiwan figures a Taiwan girl as the heroine, and keeps the major narrative elements intact, such as abduction, the sheik, violence, harem, sexual seduction, the eroticized imagination about the Middle-East, and the low status of women in Arab society. Said argues that Orientalism is developed by the West as a discursive formation in order to define the self of the West and to control the Orient. This research continues the critique of Orientalism on the one hand, and on the other hand discusses in what ways desert romance produced and consumed by women repeats and subverts the negative stereotype of the Middle-East. As part of East Asia, how Taiwan defines herself in contrast to the West and the Middle-East? Through the perspective of transcultural flow, I intend to reconfigure the triangle relationship between the West, the Self as the East (Taiwan), and the Other as the Orient (the Islamic Arabs). Finally, by using the perspective of cultural translation, I want to examine how Taiwan romance appropriates and transforms romance translated from the West, mainly England.

Title Translation/Public: AIDS, “Tongzhi,” and “Ku’er” Author Chi, Ta-Wei Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Chengchi University Abstract Taiwan distinguishes itself in Asia with its vibrant LGBT culture, including its abundant LGBT literature, locally known as “tongzhi literature.” Traceable to the early 1960s, tongzhi literature suddenly became a widely discussed phenomenon by the end of the twentieth century. This article contends that the tongzhi literature boom was enabled by the local reception of such foreign words as AIDS, “tongzhi” and “ku’er,” the latter two being local renditions of “LGBT” and “queer.” While many scholars consider that the tongzhi literature boom has resulted from the 1987 lifting of Martial Law, I emphasize that this boom also resulted from the emergence of AIDS in the early 1980s, which spawned a number of what I call “translation/public.” By “translation/public,” I refer to the mutual constitution of translation and the Habermasian public: as translation gives birth to publics (such as the conferences in response to AIDS as a novelty), it is also constantly revised in the process of being publicized or localized. Whereas “AIDS,” “tongzhi,” and “ku’er” help give birth to a public sphere where a new wave of tongzhi literature takes place, these three new words are also creatively misread by locals in Taiwan. The assumed superiority of the original to the translation – a subject common in translation studies – also dominates the local uses of AIDS, “tongzhi,” and “ku’er.” One aim of this article is to critically examine the myth that idolizes what and who are respected as seminal. Two beliefs are widely assumed in Taiwan and abroad: that the word “tongzhi” originates from the Hongkongese writer Edward Lam’s queer reading of “comrade” as habitually solemn in modern Chinese politics; that Lam’s “tongzhi” originates from a patriotic slogan created by Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China. A major effect of these beliefs is to consolidate the authority of the reputedly seminal. The meanings of “AIDS,” “tongzhi,” and “ku’er” are decided less by the idolized originators and more by local writers who consistently redefine the words that are resistant to being written in stone.

Title The Literary Career of Taiwanese Author Liang-hui (Gloria) Kuo in Hong Kong as an Example of Taiwan-Hong Kong Cultural Exchange in the 1950s Author Wang, Yu-Ting Associate Professor, Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Tsing Hua University Abstract During the 1950s, U.S.-aid-supported literary and cultural journals were an important platform for literary exchange between Taiwan and Hong Kong and helped make Hong Kong a popular destination for Taiwan’s female authors. Furthermore, contemporary U.S. Information Service (USIS) cultural policies actively promoted close cultural and literary exchanges between these two political entities. This article uses the activities in Hong Kong of Liang-hui (Gloria) Kuo, Taiwan’s “most beautiful” author, to elucidate the complex nature of the cultural-political landscape and the cultural exchanges that occurred between Taiwan and Hong Kong during this period of recent modern history. Key issues discussed include: the contemporary conditions that encouraged the literary community in Hong Kong to embrace Kuo’s USIS-sponsored literary works and the creative position of Kuo in the context of Hong Kong’s contemporary literary community. The ferment that erupted over Kuo’s work Lock of the Heart highlights the stark differences in cultural attitudes that prevailed in Taiwan and Hong Kong at that time, which may be attributed to contemporary anxieties in Taiwan over the future of Chinese nationalism and to Hong Kong’s staunch support of freedom of expression. Her handling of these issues in this book further highlights Kuo’s complex identity and heterogeneity within Taiwan’s community of female authors. In the sociopolitical context of the “southern diaspora” of Chinese scholars, which affected both Taiwan and Hong Kong, the catalogue of works produced by Liang-hui Kuo in the 1950s reveal her attitudes toward contemporary gender politics and her approach to Taiwan-Hong Kong / cross-cultural exchange in terms of the contemporary dialogue between “Chineseness” and modernity.

Title A Paradoxical Taiwan Allegory: Wansei’s Writing, Narrative Strategy, and Japanese Complex in Dust in the Wind Author Tseng, Hsiu-Ping Assistant Professor, Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, National Taiwan Normal University Abstract The second piece of Shih Shu-ching’s Taiwan Trilogy, Dust in the Wind (2008), makes “wansei”（Japanese who were born in Taiwan during the period of Japanese Rule）the protagonists of the trilogy. By doing so, it problematizes and rethinks the border of “Taiwan” and questions what should be included under “Taiwan” as a category. This essay highlights the significance of Taiwan born Japanese’s writing of Shih. On the one hand, it leaves records for a forgotten historical ethnic group; on the other hand, it bears indescribable burdens—How should an ex-colonial writer write a “Taiwan allegory” of which the protagonist is the colonizer? This essay probes this difficult writing and its identity crisis through the discussions of wansei’s writing, war narrative, and aesthetic narrative. Further, it criticizes and re-examines the political fable of the novel. This essay suggests that the narrative trajectory of Dust in the Wind reveals the narrator’s political unconscious and represents a paradoxical Taiwan national allegory. The brand new narrative perspective from wansei undoubtedly fills up and blank page of Taiwan’s colonial history, but it also leads to the missing of the Taiwanese subject. The Japanese complex that haunts the novel from the beginning echoes the colonial legacy that continues until now. This essay suggests that “cultural hybridity” cannot fully explain the narrative strategy and writing ethics of Dust in the Wind. In light of Frantz Fanon's criticism on colonial power, this essay sees decolonization in Dust in the Wind. The essay points out the paradox and difficulties of Dust in the Wind’s national allegory, which reflect the post-colonial symptoms of contemporary Taiwan. To recognize symptoms marks the beginning of decolonization.