Formosa

Formosa (フォルモサ) released its first issue in 1933, publishing three volumes in total. The journal was the creation of Taiwanese student members of the Tokyo-based Taiwan Geijutsu Kenkyukai (Taiwan Art Circle), founded by Wang Pai-yuan (Ou Haku-en), Wu Kuen-Hwang and Wu Yong-fu. Su Wei-hsiung served as its chief editor. Content focused on articles and literary works inspired by nativist and socialist ideals.

1933; journal; donated by Huang Teh-shih

Literary Review

Literary Review began publishing in 1956 with Hsia Chi-an as chief editor. In an era of virulent anti-communist rhetoric, authors Hsia Chi-an, Wu Lu-chin and Lin I-liang created Literary Review as a springboard for open thought and free expression.

1956; journal; donated by Chang Mo

Theater

Theater released a total of nine volumes since releasing its first issue in 1965. The journal brought avant-garde and modernist art trends to Martial Law-era Taiwan, looking to trounce stifling conformity with creativity. Theater published original contributions from domestic literary authors, screenwriters and theater playwrights and important foreign theatrical and literary works in translation.

1965; journal; donated by Cheng Tsai-ching

The Wild Streets of Suburban Tokio – Koenji District

Ong Nao (1908 – unknown) was a native of Shetou in Changhua County, Taiwan. After arriving in Tokyo in 1934 as a student, he moved to Koenji on the city’s outskirts, living the life of a starving artist. This piece sumptuously describes the life of the idealistic, youthful art community that pervaded 1930s Koenji – a place with which he had intimate familiarity.

manuscript of translation by Yeh Ti; donated by Yeh Chin-chin

Away from the City, to the Sea, 1985

Lin Yao-teh (1963-1996) was an author from Taipei City, Taiwan. Lin was an advocate of urban literature during the 1980s, producing many original works in the genre. Critics note Lin held a deep-set humanistic concern for the changes, contradictions and conflicts inherent in modern society. He used “city” and “sea” as literary foils.

manuscript; Great Sea Journal of Poetry (founded by Chu Hsueh-shu)

Eccentricities

Chiu Miao-chin (1969-1995) was a native of Changhua, Taiwan. The original manuscript of Eccentricities survives today only in photocopy. This piece has all the hallmarks of meta-fiction. Surrounded by urban bustle, Chiu describes in rich verbiage capitalism’s corrosive decay of the family and social mores.

1990; manuscript; provided by Lai Hsiang-yin

Ox Cart

Chung Tieh-min (1941-2011) was an author from Meinong in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. The author’s many works, set in rural Taiwan, highlighted the imperative importance of preserving rural ways and the environment – movements in which he was personally very active. “Yu Chung-Hsiung’s Spring” takes on the chronic rural issues of public education and continuing education past the junior high school level. It is a humanist, socially relevant work.

donated by Cheng Chiong-ming

The Castrated Cock

Chang Wen-huan (1909-1978) was a native of Meishan in Chiayi County, Taiwan. He finished The Castrated Cock in 1942, which was published in Vol. 2, No. 3 of Taiwan Bungei (Taiwan Literature). It narrates the story of his female protagonist’s difficult journey from fatalism to enlightenment. In gradually assuming authority over her own body and future, the author takes an innovative approach to dissecting and exposing the severe and callous nature traditional culture.

clean manuscript; donated by Chang Yu-huan

“Prayer”, My Religion is Love

Lee Kui-hsien (1937 - ) is an author from Danshui (Tamsui), Taiwan. His original 1980s poem “My Religion is Love” describes the poet’s passion for his native soil and home as well as his disdain for “truth seekers” and injustice. Lee urges poets to remain “spiritual fortresses” in order to cast a withering spotlight on society’s ills and shortcomings. This, he says, is the true “religion of love.”

K.T. Liu, Taipei, 1997; book; NMTL collection

Silent Spring (translation)

Ma I-kung (1948 - ) is a native of Taipei City, Taiwan. He was an active writer on environmental issues during the 1980s and strong advocate for environmental education. Ma translated Rachel Carson’s seminal work Silent Spring into Chinese to awaken the Taiwan public to the imperative necessity of humanity to restore balance to its relationship with nature and the environment.

manuscript; donated by Ma I-Kung

“Bentham Cablecreeper” and “The Story of a Wound”

Liu Ko-hsiang (1957 - ), aka Liu Tze-huai, is a native of Wurih in Taichung County, Taiwan. Impromptu writings “Bentham Cablecreeper” (later renamed The Cablecreeper’s Winter) and “The Story of a Wound” were included in the author’s 2001 work, At My Most Beautiful. These pieces intermingle poetry with nature and nature with prose to nurture limitless potential.

2000s; manuscript; provided by Liu Ko-hsiang

A Sky of My Own

Yuan Chiong-chiong (1950 - ) is an author from Hsinchu, Taiwan. The author highlighted the interplay between modern sensitivities and everyday affairs to observe the feminine psyche and changes in male – female relational norms against the backdrop of the 1980s “economic miracle” and unprecedented prosperity. This work is a deep commentary on contemporary emotional issues.

clean manuscript; provided by Yuan Chiong-chiong

Rapeseed

Liao Hui-ying (1948 - ) is a native of Fengyuan in Taichung County, Taiwan. This 1980s piece reflects on the female protagonist’s journey from childhood to marriage. Rapeseed is a hardy plant grown in Taiwan, surviving in even the poorest of soils. Liao chose the title as a metaphor for the inherent resilience of women.

clean manuscript; provided by Liao Hui-ying

“Candle Heart” in Candle Blossoms

Lin Hai-yin (1918-2001) was a native of Toufen in Miaoli County, Taiwan. She used “candle” to represent the poor fate of women in traditional, conservative society. Her writings steer clear of bitter outcries and tearful pleadings, but nevertheless very effectively convey the endless sorrows of women in calm, even conciliatory, words.

2004; clean manuscript; donated by Hsia Tsu-chuo

1981; Literature Press, Taipei; book; provided by the NMTL

White Gate, Farewell!

Hsia Lieh (1940 - ), aka Hsia Tzu-chuo, was born in Beijing and spent his formative years in Taipei. White Gate, Farewell!, a short essay Hsia published in his high school newspaper, effervesces teenage brashness. Although almost never spoken, the name “White Gate” – an allusion to the main gate of Taiwan’s best boy’s high school –stirs a fiery passion in young men’s souls that ultimately fizzles into disappointment. Such are the days of youth.

Adieu Gaillardia

Lee Tung (1953-2004), aka Lai Hsi-an, is an author from Hualien in eastern Taiwan. Set in the Penghu Archipelago, this novel tells the story of seven youth who make a pact to meet up again two decades later. The pact proves difficult to fulfill, but elicits deep-set emotions and memories. Narrating the changing ebb and flow of life, Lee takes a romantic, nostalgic tack to tell the life stories of his characters.

1990s; manuscript; donated by Chu Chien-tai

Deformed Rainbow

Lin Huai-min (1947 - ) is an author from Xingang in Chiayi County, Taiwan. Deformed Rainbow was Lin’s first published novel. It describes a university student’s fruitless search for purpose in a life he finds stiflingly boring. His death and passage into the spirit world still fails to bring happiness. The dark frustrations of youth, the fast pace of social change and lack of hope all pervade the palpable “boredom” of youth.

1968; Buffalo Book Co., Taipei; book; NMTL collection

Acacia Flowers

Cheng Ching-wen (1932 - ) is an author from Taipei City, Taiwan. His short story Acacia Flowers follows the story of its female protagonist. It uses a light, easygoing style to highlight the conservatism and separation imposed by tradition on the two sexes. Speaking softly of fading time and unfinished business, the author encourages the reader to think about what he or she would do differently if time could be reversed.

1980s; manuscript; provided by Cheng Ching-wen

Home on the Crossroads

Ping Lu (1953 - ) is a native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Home on the Crossroads is a short story included in her Correspondence with a Centenarian. The narrative describes history as a bill awaiting payment and uses human relationships as a concrete example of this idea. Ping deals deftly with interwoven issues of ethnicity and gender, creating in the process her own distinct literary style.

1990s; manuscript; provided by Ping Lu

A Red Rose Soon to Bloom in His Eye and Your Palm

Chi Ta-wei (1972 - ) is a native of Dajia in Taichung County, Taiwan. A Red Rose Soon to Bloom in His Eye and Your Palm, published around 2000, was included in the anthology World of the Senses. The author sees the concept of gender as significantly more fluid than the traditional binary model. The deviant sperm in the story is the straw that breaks the back of the mythological underpinnings of heterosexual love.

clean manuscript; provided by Chi Ta-wei

The Selected Biographies of Deviant Vampires

Hung Ling (1971 - ) is a native of Taichung, Taiwan. Selected Biographies, an original work of science fiction, is a hybrid linguistic and literary work as well. This work in the sensual genre treats “blood” as the outward manifestation of infatuation with beauty and the motivation for continued creativity.

clean manuscript; provided by Hung Ling

Taiwan Literature English Translation Series

This is primarily a compilation of correspondence kept by Tu Kuo-ching related to his ideas and plans for publishing the journal Taiwan Literature English Translation Series in the United States.

Chinese Literature in Malaysia

Zhang Jinzhong (1956 - ), a native of Pahang, Malaysia, produced this extensive academic discussion of Chinese-language literature in Malaysia. The manuscript on display here was the author’s final markup copy finished up before the book went to press.

manuscript; donated by Zhang Jinzhong

Shenzhou: Cultural Nostalgia and China of the Mind

Huang Jinshu (1967 - ) is an author from the Malaysian state of Johor Bahru. This work suggests the increasing profile of Malaysia’s Chinese-language literature in Taiwan literary circles. This work drew on liberal art sources in Taiwan to elicit the history, present and future of Chinese-language literature in Malaysia as well as its relationship to Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese literary circles.

manuscript; provided by Huang Jinshu