New York: Columbia University Press, 2021. xiii, 293 pp. (Tables, figures.) US$35.00, paper. ISBN 9780231200530.
Local Taiwanese identity has been influenced by a diversity of outside powers over the last 500 years, from the Ming dynasty to the Dutch and Spanish colonial powers in the 16th and 17th centuries, to the Qing dynasty, to the Japanese empire, to the Kuomintang (KMT) escaping the Mainland in 1949, and finally to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leadership of today. Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan: Youth, Narrative, Nationalism explores the literary trends of post-1949 Taiwan, with particular attention to the 1970s and how they exemplify the evolving cultural identity of Taiwanese during this period, ultimately leading to the democratization and Taiwanization of the island’s identity.
Hsiau begins by outlining the key concepts of generation, narrative, and conscientization, citing Karl Mannheim’s theory that social conflicts elicit human agency which ultimately creates a shared generational identity. Citing Mannheim’s narrative identity theory, Hsiau argues that through the use of literary narratives, particularly those describing the conflicts being experienced by a given people, authors have the power to make an entire generation experience conscientization, essentially awakening to their shared objectives. Such narratives can ultimately inspire a generation to take social or political action to achieve their common goals.
The next four chapters provide a detailed account of the common narratives being published by Taiwanese authors in different periods, starting with the 1960s, when the strict controls and nationalist indoctrination imposed by the KMT under martial law caused political apathy among the first post-war generation. During this period, much of the literature still focused on the Mainland, with authors narrating stories of their parents’ birthplaces, exemplifying a shared generational sense of alienation that comes from quasi-exile (i.e., being the children of exiled Mainlanders) and post-memory (i.e., having no personal memories from their ancestral homeland).
The early 1970s saw Taiwan lose its seat in the United Nations to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan and the United States shift their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the PRC, and Taiwan’s claim of sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands begin to lose legitimacy. These events gave rise to a movement to defend the Diaoyutai Islands (Baodiao), criticize the older generation for their cultural and political shortcomings, and demand political reforms, all of which became fixtures in literary publications like The Intellectual. Ultimately, the calls for reform made by this generation, which Hsiau calls the “return-to-reality” generation, led to the overwhelming acceptance that democratization was necessary in Taiwan, and political activist movements began demanding the right to elect parliamentary representatives.
Next, Hsiau explains how it was during this same period that scholars rediscovered the so-called Taiwanese “New Literature” of the 1920s and 1930s, inspired by Western literature and the Mainland’s May Fourth Movement, which sought modernization. Authors of this period, most notably Yang Kui, wrote about resisting Japanese imperialism in Taiwan, and about the cultivation of a uniquely Taiwanese cultural identity, which came to be elevated to the status of nativist literature during the early 1970s by the return-to-reality generation.
In chapter 5, Hsiau describes how the Taiwanese nativist literature came to diverge from Chinese nativist literature, which fostered Chinese nationalism by criticizing Japanese and American imperialism, demanding greater equality and social welfare, and building on shared feelings of humiliation at foreign hands. Taiwanese nativist literature, on the other hand, tended to emphasize a shared local Taiwanese identity, in direct opposition to those who still clung to their ancestral roots on the Mainland. As a result, Taiwanese nativist authors tended to disagree with the KMT rulers, and their publications inspired the formation of a political movement outside of the KMT party (Dangwai), advocating for democratic elections.
Chapter 6 provides an overview of some key literary works of the Dangwai movement, which often criticized the Mainland PRC in an effort to build a shared local Taiwanese identity grounded in democratic values. According to Hsiau, “for the Dangwai, colonial and KMT rule were both oligarchic, the few unfairly overriding the many,” and democratization “was necessary in order for the Taiwanese identity to flourish” (139). The chapter profiles Lü Hsiu-lien (Annette Lu), a leader of the Dangwai movement, whose writings about both Taiwan’s past and future sought to construct a strong Taiwanese nationalist identity, ultimately propelling her to the vice presidency under the first non-KMT government of modern Taiwan, led by Chen Shui-bian and the DPP.
Hsiau’s primary conclusion appears simple: that the collective Taiwanese identity constructed through literature (the narrative identity) in the post-civil war period led to the gradual acceptance of Taiwan’s unique political destiny vis-à-vis the Mainland PRC. This literary narrative inspired the return-to-reality generation to push for “the indigenization or Taiwanization of politics and culture,” ultimately leading to Taiwan’s democratization and a peaceful transfer of power from the KMT to the DPP at the start of the 21st century (173). Though some scholarly fields may disagree with this oversimplification and seek to analyze additional factors which influenced the democratization movement in Taiwan, this work nevertheless succeeds at demonstrating the significant role played by literature therein.
Throughout the book, Hsiau cites the foundational works of major authors of the various sociopolitical and cultural identity movements in post-civil war Taiwan. This monograph provides a broad overview of the literary trends of this era, but only delves deeper into their contextual significance in a select few cases. It may not be particularly useful for experts in this field, as it reduces the influence of various movements in an attempt to address a complex evolution in local identities by analyzing only a narrow range of influential literature, but this book can serve as good introductory reading for students of Taiwanese literature, culture, politics, and contemporary history.
Jonathan Brasnett
University of Ottawa, Ottawa