A Passage to China: Literature, Loyalism, and Colonial Taiwan

by Chien-hsin Tsai

Overview

This book, the first of its kind in English, examines the reinvention of loyalism in colonial Taiwan through the lens of literature. It analyzes the ways in which writers from colonial Taiwan—including Qiu Fengjia, Lian Heng, Wu Zhuoliu, and others—creatively and selectively employed loyalist ideals to cope with Japanese colonialism and its many institutional changes. In the process, these writers redefined their relationship with China and Chinese culture.

Drawing attention to select authors’ lesser-known works, author Chien-hsin Tsai provides a new assessment of well-studied historical and literary materials and a nuanced overview of literary and cultural productions in colonial Taiwan. During and after Japanese colonialism, the islanders’ perception of loyalism, sense of belonging, and self-identity dramatically changed. Tsai argues that the changing tradition of loyalism unexpectedly complicates Taiwan’s tie to China, rather than unquestionably reinforces it, and presents a new line of inquiry for future studies of modern Chinese and Sinophone literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674975125
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/10/2017
Series:	Harvard East Asian Monographs , #398
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Chien-hsin Tsai is Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Society and Culture at University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Conventions ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: From Loyalism to Postloyalism 1

1 Qiu Fengjia and Lyric Poetry after Trauma 54

2 Lian Heng and the Poetics of History 113

3 Lai He, Zhang Shenqie, and Topolectal Writing 160

4 Zhong Lihe, Hakka, and Hospitality 206

5 Wu Zhuoliu and Orphan as Metaphor 251

Conclusion: Toward a Postloyal Criticism 281

Bibliography 306

Index 328