Literature – Page 4 – Taiwan Insight

Documenting Taiwanese Modernism: Le Moulin’s Untimely Historical Project

26 September 2019 Editor

Written by Tim Shao-Hung Teng. In 2015 Taiwanese filmmaker Huang Ya-li (黃亞歷) released his documentary Le Moulin (Riyaori shi sanbuzhe/ 日曜式散步者) to critical acclaim. The film recounts the major life events of four core members of Taiwan’s prewar surrealist poetry society, Le Moulin (fengche shishe/風車詩社). Known for its experimental style that does away with interviews and voice-over narrations, the nearly-three-hour film cites, extracts, pastes, and freely associates materials such as literature, paintings, photography, sounds, film footage, diary entries, and newspaper clippings. These sources are not always readily recognisable and nor are they all directly related to the poets’ works.

The Making of a “Heroine”: Huang Bamei and the Politics of Wartime History in Postwar Taiwan, 1945–1982

8 May 2019 Editor

Written by Weiting Guo. While some may think that we have garnered enough fragments of Huang Bamei’s life, one should bear in mind that the richness of her literary representations, together with the scarcity of her appearance in official documents, may have made her disappear inside the conventions of her own stories—a dilemma that often appears in the memories of mythologized figures.

Recognising Taiwan Literature: The Struggle of the Island in World Literature

8 May 2019 Editor

Written by Federica Passi. Overstressing the uniqueness of Taiwan literature can also force it in an isolated position. Instead, an approach that emphasizes the regularities and what connects the island’s literature with other literatures can possibly better integrate the image of Taiwan in a wider cultural context.

Western Xia Hotel and the Paradox of Becoming (non)-Taiwanese: The Identity Politics of Second-Generation Mainland Writers

12 April 2019 Editor

Written by Fangmei Lin. What is emphasized by Luo as “becoming non-human” is, in fact, becoming non-Taiwanese. The entire loop of becoming eventually demonstrates the paradox of the Taiwanese: unending deferral and the situation of absence constitute the meaning of being and becoming (non)-Taiwanese.

Buddhism and books: Lin Ching-hsuan’s cross-Strait careers

20 March 2019 Editor

The late Lin Ching-hsuan 林清玄 was a publishing phenomenon, with his books on Buddhism captivating readers in post-martial law Taiwan.

Reclaiming LGBTQ History: Taiwanese Literature in the Period of Martial Law

12 February 2018 Editor

Written by Ta-Wei Chi LGBTQ history is beginning to be remembered in a variety of formats. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the decriminalisation of

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