Introduction to Postwar Taiwan Fiction
Unit Three
History and Traumatized Lives—
The Stories of Chen Ying-chen and Guo Song-fen
Lecturer:
Richard Rong-bin Chen,
PhD of Comparative Literature.
Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
1
Chen Yi [陳儀] was receiving an instrument of surrender from Rikichi Ando [安藤利吉]
(Left) in the Government Building of Taihoku Prefecture in 1945.
2
Wikipedia Taiwan Junior
3
Rikichi Ando (1884-1946)
4
Chen Yi (1883-1950)
5
Chen Yi’s Domination
• Takeover? [接收] Or robbery? [劫收]
• 28000 mainland officials arrived.
• More than 100 thousand Taiwanese soldiers back
to Taiwan.
• High unemployment rate.
• State Monopolies in sugar, camphor, tobacco,
mining, petroleum, and almost all important raw
materials.
• The Chinese Civil War.
• Inflation and food shortages.
6
The Tragic Beginning
• The confiscation of contraband tobacco outside
Tien-ma Teas House [天馬茶房, literally, Sky
Horse Tea House] in Feb 27, 1947.
• A bystander killed, 6 bureau officers escaped.
• On the next day, an angry crowd of protesters
went, first, to the bureau, and torched it, then, to
Chen Yi’s office to petition.
• The military police on the balcony of the office
shot recklessly at the crowd with machine guns,
killing several dozens of people immediately.
7
Wikipedia C君
The approximate location of Tien-ma Tea House at the
intersection of Yen-ping North Road and Nanking West Road
8
Taipei Branch of Monopoly Bureau
(專賣局台北分局)
9
Wikipedia Executive Yuan
Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office
(台灣行政長官公署 )
10
The Riots around the Island
• The words about the massacre got around, riots
spread around the island like wildfire.
• On Feb. 28, the martial law was declared.
• Before nationalist troops landed in Keelung on
March 8, Chen Yi played tricks on Taiwanese
people and promised to bring justice back to the
dead and to improve their political and economic
plight.
• Meanwhile, Taiwanese people armed and organized
themselves everywhere on the island, and some
even claimed the independence from China.
11
The 27 Brigade [27部隊] in Taichung
• Established on March 6.
• Hsieh Hsueh-hung [謝
雪紅] (1901-1970).
• Joined the Communist
Party of China in 1925,
received education in
both Shanghai and
Soviet Russia.
• Imprisoned by Japanese
government for 5 years.
12
• After the reinforcement troops came, Chen Yi
regained control in less than one week.
• On March 17th, a day after the 27 Brigade was
dismissed, General Pai Ch’ung-hsi was sent to
Taiwan to investigate the incident and to comfort the
people of Taiwan.
• On March 20th, Chen Yi declared a campaign of
Ching-hsiang (to clear up hometowns), ordering
Taiwanese people to submit weapons and to turn in
the “conspirators.”
• Chen declared a list of the wanted on April 18th, in
less than a month, the martial law was lifted on May
16th.
13
The Aftermath
• The death toll of the incident has never been
determined, and it varies from several thousand
to more than 100 thousand.
• According to an official report published in 1992,
the estimated number is between 18000 to 28000.
• Three years after the Martial Law (1949-1987)
had been lifted, the incident was for the first time
recorded in senior high students’ textbook of
history in 1990.
• In 1995, 228 became a memorial day.
14
Compensation: After a
memorial foundation
was established in 1995,
the family or the victims
themselves started to
receive compensation
payments from the
government.
The memorial park: In
1997, the Taipei New
Park was renamed as
228 Peace Memorial
Park [二二八和平紀念公
園].
Wikipedia Taiwan Junior
15
Books about the Incident
• Ramon H. Myers et al. A Tragic Beginning: The
Taiwan Uprising of February 28, 1947. Stanford:
Stanford UP, 1991. [A detailed study on the
incident.]
• “The February 28 Incident: The Climax of
Taiwanese Political Demands.” in Steven E. Pillips.
Assimilation and Independence: The Taiwanese
Encounter Nationalist China, 1945-1950. Stanford:
Stanford UP, 2003.
16
• Sylvia Li-chun Lin. Representing Atrocity in
Taiwan: The 2/22 Incident and White Terror
in Fiction and Film. New York: Columbia UP,
2007.
• “Taipei 1947.” in Michael Berry. A History of
Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature
and Film. New York: Columbia UP, 2008. [It
examines fictions and films before and after
1987.]
17
The 228 Literature
• Two Earliest Short Stories:
• “Trauma” [創傷] by Meng-chou [夢周], published
in Chung-hua Daily [中華日報] in April 20, 1947.
• The protesters in the story are depicted as
mobsters.
• “Blood and Tears on Taiwan” [台灣島上血和淚]
by Po-tzu [伯子], published in Literary Life [文藝
生活] in May, 1947.
• The nationalist soldiers in the story are depicted as
brutal butchers.
18
Wu Zhuo-liu [吳濁流] (1990-1976)
• 1941-1943: a journalist in Nanking.
• After the war, he worked for newspapers and schools, and
established Literary Taiwan [台灣文藝] in 1964.
• Stories depicting the struggle of Taiwanese between
Japan and China.
• Wu, Zhuoliu. Orphan of Asia. [亞細亞的孤兒] Trans.
Ioannis Mentzas. New York: Columbia UP, 2006. [First
published in Japanese in 1946, in Chinese in 1959.]
• ---. The Fig Tree: Memoirs of a Taiwanese Patriot. [無花
果] Trans. Duncan Hunter. Bloomington: AuthorHouse,
2002. [First serialized in Chinese in 1968, and its fulllength version was banned in 1970.]
• The last chapter of The Fig Tree: “Massacre.”
19
Taiwan Literature and February 28th Incident
• Published in 2008 by UC Santa Barbara as a part
of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series.
• “Intoxication” [沉醉] (1947) by Ou-tan Sheng [歐坦生]
• “A Taiwanese Girl” [台灣姑娘] (1957) by Lin Jinlan [林
斤瀾]
• “The Huang Su Chronicle” [黃素小編年] (1983) by Lin
Shuang-pu [林雙不]
• “Journey to Taimu Mountain” [泰姆山記] (1984) by Li
Chiao [李喬]
• “The Last Spring of the Commander-in-chief” [總司令
最後e春天] (2005?) by Hu Chang-sung [胡長松]
20
• “Intoxication” [沉醉]
• A mainlander saved by a Taiwanese young maid.
• In the end, the ungrateful mainlander broke up
with the young maid after having sex with her.
• “A Taiwanese Girl” [台灣姑娘]
• A mainland teacher in Taiwan and a Taiwanese
young maid.
• They were in love, joining the “revolution,”
imprisoned together.
• The girl died in the end.
21
• “The Huang Su Chronicle” [黃素小編年]
• The girl went to the street with her mother to buy a
knife.
• Arrested in the uprising, having a breakdown before
being executed.
• Parents died, abandoned by her fiancé, overrun by a
train in the end.
• “Journey to Taimu Mountain” [泰姆山記]
• Based on the life of the communist writer, Lu Heruo.
• Together with the policeman pursuing him, the
protagonist died from being bit by a poisonous snake.
22
Films about the Incident
• Hou Hsiao-hsien. [侯孝賢] A City of Sadness. [悲
情城市] Released in 1989, received Leone d’Oro
prize of the Venice Film Festival.
• The fate of the Lin brothers.
• A bar owner, an army doctor, a interpreter, and a
deaf-mute photo studio owner.
• Lin Cheng-sheng. [林正盛] March of Happiness. [
悲情城市] Released in 1989, received Leone d’Oro
prize of the Venice Film Festival
• From happiness to sadness.
23
【Chen Ying-chen】
24
1937: born in Miaoli, raised in Taipei.
1960: graduated from Department of English,
Tamkang College of Arts.
Arrested and imprisoned in 1968 for engaging in
“pro-communist activities.”
1975: President Chiang Kai-shek died, Chen was
released from the prison due to an amnesty.
Suffering from strokes after 2006, he is now
living in Beijing.
1985: established Renjian zazhi [《人間雜誌》],
a journal famous for its reportage which was
closed in 1989 for financial reasons.
25
“The Country Village Teacher” (August,
1960, from Literary Review [《筆匯》])
• The Atmosphere after the Retrocession
• In the first section of this story, we are given
an impression that the atmosphere in the
village was quite ambivalent.
• On the one hand, in this mountain village, the
villagers were quite excited about Taiwan’s
“recovery” (the Retrocession in 1945), there
were even community theatricals arranged to
celebrate this historical occasion.
26
 on the other, though there were five families in the village
with young males who had been sent by Japanese to
Bataan [巴丹] (one of the islands in the Philippines)
without returning home, the village people were not
sorrowful since “in wartime people get used to
conscription and casualties” (39).
 Also, since nobody knew “what year they [the five boys]
had died,” they were quite indifferent to their deaths (39).
For those who had not been a part of the war in the
Southeast Asia, the remote tropical island was seen as
a place filled with various elements of curiosity, such
as “smoke from explosives, ocean beaches and the sun,
jungles and malaria” (39).
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
27
Veterans and the Society
In the past century, veterans have been treated
by their fellow countrymen with great
indifference, and I think this is a very important
question in the global trans-cultural historical
reality.
For example, in the popular culture of the States,
we can see that many veterans of the
Vietnamese War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq
War have been depicted as unable to rejoin the
society due to a widely felt hostility in their
original community or family.
28
The Protagonist as an Intellectual
Wu the Protagonist.
 In the second section, the story’s main character, Wu
Chin-hsiang, a twenty-six-year-old Taiwanese
veteran back from Borneo, is depicted as an exmember of the Taiwanese Anti-Japanese Movement,
a new elementary school teacher with only
seventeen students to teach, and an intellectual (also
a nationalist) with admirable ideals. After the war,
“all of his pre-war fervor came back” (42).
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
29
Wu and his students.
 as a son of an impoverished tenant farmer, he had “a
deep feeling and knowledgeable sympathy for
laborers,” and he also yearned for a “hope for reform”
his own country and people, to eradicate all the pre-war
oppressions by the officials and military police.
 He loved his students to the point of feeling a reverence
for them because, though they were sons and daughters
of farmers, according to Wu, with the help from their
teacher, their generation can establish “self-awareness
and social conscious,” as “just and stubbornly honest”
people, they could “assume the responsibility for
reforming their own rural community” (43).
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
30
The 228 Incident
Reading the story historically.
The next year at the beginning of spring, the
upheaval within Taiwan and the turmoil on
the mainland spread to Wu’s isolated mountain
village. . . . At this point Teacher Wu became
aware of a disturbance within himself, and also
of other obscure emotions. (43)
“For the first time in his life, he began to look at
his fatherland and disregard present social
defects and problems.” (43)
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) .
Exiles at home : short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese
Studies, University of Michigan
31
The reflection on China, the nature of
Chineseness.
 At this point, Wu started to reflect upon the
“foolishness and instability” of China (43),
and became disillusioned with his ideal of reforming
China and concluded that China was a country “so
old in years, so indolent, so haughty” and to
reform it was “something incomparably difficult”
(45).
 The protagonist of this story reveals the
desperation and disillusionment inside a great part
of the first-generation postwar Taiwanese
intellectuals.
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
32
 After fifty years of traumatic experience of
Japanese colonization (from 1895 to 1945), they
felt overwhelmingly happy and hopeful about being
embraced again by their “fatherland.”
 After seeing what China really was through the
February 28 Incident and the Chinese Civil War,
however, they became unbearably disappointed
with not only the Nationalist government, but
also with China.
 Therefore, the theme of this story is more a
historical collective consciousness than an
individual tragedy.
33
Wu’s Corruption
 The first line of the fourth section is painstakingly ironic:
“Gradually Wu Chin-hsiang, the reformer past thirty,
deteriorated” (45). At best, Wu was only a “failed
reformer” who committed suicide in the end.
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
 His traumatic past, the fact he had eaten human heart, came
back to haunt him. After he revealed inadvertently his
cannibalism during a drinking party (a going-away banquet
held for the first of his students to be drafted), strange
glances and village gossips followed him around, and he
could not get away from the terrifying memories of the
south, so he committed suicide in less than three months.
34
The Reason for Wu’s Death
 One might ask: what caused his death? Is it his
disillusionment, or his cannibalism?
 I thought the answer is more the former, rather than
the later, because we know that at first he became
disillusioned and corrupted, and then he became a
drinker who “found himself inexplicably weeping
like a child” (46).
 As his ideals of reform crumbled down, his world of
conscience and responsibility deteriorated, his tragic
death was thus inevitable.
Source: Chen Ying-chen.(1986). (Lucien Miller Trans.) . Exiles at home :
short stories. Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
35
【Guo Song-fen】
Flicker pbear6150
36
 Guo Song-fen was born in Taipei in 1938, son of the
famous Taiwanese painter Guo Shuei-hu (1908-). His
wife Li Yu [李渝] (1944-) is also an important Taiwan
novelist.
 Graduating from Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures, NTU in 1961, he took part in the editorial
staff of Modern Literature [Hsientai Wenshuei].
 In 1966, he went to UC Berkeley to study Comparative
Literature, acquiring a master’s degree in 1969.
 In 1971, like Liu Ta-jen [劉大任], he decided to drop
his PhD career, participated wholeheartedly in the
Protect Tiaoyutai Movement.
37
 In 1974, together with Liu Ta-jen, he went to Mainland
China and was received by Chou En-lai [周恩來], the
Prime Minister of the Chinese government. Therefore,
both he and Liu were on KMT’s blacklist for almost a
decade (the ban on their returning to Taiwan was lifted
in 1983).
 “Running Mother” [奔跑的母親] (1984) was
published in The Seventies [《七十年代》], a famous
Hong Kong political journal renamed The Nineties [《
九十年代》] in 1984.
 Guo suffered from his first stroke in 1997, and when the
second came in 2005, he passed away in New York.
38
“Moon Seal” (1984)
• After the war, a woman helped his husband survive
tuberculosis.
• For her husband, she lead the family through the
hardships of the 228 Incident.
• After her husband’s recovery, through the
introduction of his doctor, he became involved
with a group of leftists from the Mainland.
• Feeling lonely, angry, and jealous at the same
time, the wife reported to the police that her
husband had a whole case of banned books, ending
many people’s lives, including the husbands.
39
Not Only a Psychological Short Story
This story is, first of all, a psychological story
which focus on how a middle-aged man face his
complicated relationships with his mother.
The implication of the story, however, is
nevertheless highly political and historical. For
example, the psychiatrist, Dr. Liao, in the story
was orphaned due to his father’s abrupt death two
years after Taiwan Restoration (or Retrocession,
1945). The protagonist’s father had also joined
the war for the Japanese and never come back.
40
The Mother and the Son
”The war between mother and son to destroy
each other never ends.” (p. 135)
”One moment she is running away from you;
the next, she is running toward you.” (p. 135)
“Children, one day you will remember your
mother.” (p. 137)
Source: Guo Song-fen.(2009). John Balcom (Eds.)
Running mother and other stories
New York : Columbia University Press
41
From the two quotations above, I think, one of the
main themes to be presented in this story is the
ambiguous relationship between mother and son.
The main character kept talking about how
beautiful his mother had once been, but this
figure withered away gradually because she
had to become tough after his father’s death.
(For example, she had to jump up and down from
the truck like a grasshopper in order to buy some
illegal rice during the war.)
The last sentence of this short story, is the final
affirmation of a mother’s persistent calling.
42
The Mother
Also, in the story we see a very distinctive
mother figure with both qualities of tenderness
and toughness.
The mother was victimized both by the Pacific
War (the father was dead due to the war) and
the social convention (at one point she was
forced by the grandfather to be re-married and
to leave her children).
In works of war literature, women are
usually more victimized than men.
43
The Doctor
 The character of Dr. Liao also deserves some attention.
First of all, his mother, like the main character’s mother,
was suppressed by the social convention of Taiwan in the
old days. After the abrupt death of Liao’s father in the
228 Incident, his mother was evicted out of the family
because she was consider to be an ominous woman
who brought bad luck to the family.
 Liao had lost contact with her since her leaving the
family. For this reason, the fact that the main character’s
mother was taken care of by Liao does not seem strange
because it is quite natural that, with this action, Liao
could compensate the loss of his childhood.
44
Liao did not do it simply out of the duty of a good
friend. Therefore, we might say that the contrast
and relationship between the main character
and Liao are quite interesting.
They were not only playmates and classmates in
their childhood, but also patient and doctor.
Also, their mothers both suffered a lot from the
historical and social reality of Taiwan in the 1940s.
In this sense, we can say that, as a character, Liao is
not only functional (that is, not only a psychiatrist),
but also a contrast to and comparison with the
main character.
45
 The dream revealed his deep fear that his mother
might leave them due to getting re-married, and this
might be unbearable and a great blow for an orphaned
child. Ironically, after he grew up, it was he who ran
away from the family, rather than his mother. So the
mother’s running toward the main character might
represent the fact that he missed his mother a lot
during his extended stay abroad.
 Also, his mother said that she could not stand the noise
of his children and that of washing dishes. Is it really
so, or the mother simply did not want to be a burden
to her son? The son’s and the mother’s attitudes toward
the other were indeed quite ambiguous.
46
Copyright Declaration
Page
Work
Licensing
Author/Source
2
Wikipeida: Author Unknown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ando_Rikichi_surrender.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
3
Wikipedia Taiwan Junior
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Control_Yuan.JPG
2012/03/09 visited
4
Wikipedia One of followings (Source specify photo contributers but does
not specify who was the copyright holder)
南支派遣軍各部隊将兵 軍報道部写真班 サウス・チヤイナ・フオト・
サービス 同盟通信社 東京朝日新聞社
大阪毎日・東京日々新聞社 読売新聞社
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ando_Rikichi.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
5
Wikipeida: Author Unknown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chen_Yi.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
8
Wikipedia C君
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taipei_street.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
9
Wikipeida: Author Unknown
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:228_Incident_h.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
47
Copyright Declaration
Page
Work
Licensing
Author/Source
10
Wikipedia Executive Yuan
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Executive_Yuan01.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
12
Wikipeida: Author Unknown
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sia_Soat-hong.jpg
2012/03/09 visited
15
Wikipedia Taiwan Junior
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taipei_228_Monument.JPG
2012/03/09 visited
24
Wikipedia C.I.K.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chenyingzhen.jpg
2012/03/06 visited
27
in wartime people get used to
conscription and casualties
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.39)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
27
what year they [the five boys]
had died,
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.39)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
48
Copyright Declaration
Page
Work
Licensing
Author/Source
27
smoke from explosives,
ocean beaches and the sun,
jungles and malaria
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.39)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
29
all of his pre-war fervor
came back
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.42)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
30
self-awareness and social
conscious,” as “just and
stubbornly honest” people,
they could “assume
the …own rural community
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.43)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
31
The next year at the
beginning … and also of
other obscure emotions
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.43)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
31
For the first time in his life,
he began to look at his
fatherland and disregard
present social defects and
problems
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.43)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
32
so old in years, so indolent,
so haughty” and to reform it
was “something
incomparably difficult
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
Lucien Miller(translated ) Exiles at home : short stories (pp.43)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
49
Copyright Declaration
Page
Work
Licensing
Author/Source
32
foolishness and instability
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
(Lucien Miller, Trans.). Exiles at home : short stories (pp.45)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
34
Gradually Wu Chin-hsiang,
the reformer past thirty,
deteriorated
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
(Lucien Miller, Trans.). Exiles at home : short stories (pp.45)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
35
found himself inexplicably
weeping like a child
Chen Ying-chen.(1986) The Country Village Teacher
(Lucien Miller, Trans.). Exiles at home : short stories (pp.46)
Ann Arbor : Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
Flickr pbear6150
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbear6150/26499797/
2012/03/06 visited
36
41
The war between mother and
son to destroy each other
never ends.
Guo Song-fen.(2009). Running Mother
John Balcom (Eds.) Running mother and other stories (pp.135)
New York : Columbia University Press
41
One moment she is running
away from you; the next, she
is running toward you.
Guo Song-fen.(2009). Running Mother
John Balcom (Eds.) Running mother and other stories (pp.135)
New York : Columbia University Press
50
Copyright Declaration
Page
41
Work
Children, one day you will
remember your mother.
Licensing
Author/Source
Guo Song-fen.(2009). Running Mother
John Balcom (Eds.) Running mother and other stories (pp.137)
New York : Columbia University Press
51