A History of Taiwan Literature, by Ye Shitao, an important public intellectual in Taiwan, is arguably one of the most important intellectual works of literary history. This translation is a most important resource for those interested in the intellectual history of East Asia, world literature, and Taiwan studies.

Chang provides a comprehensive history of late 20th century Taiwanese literature by placing the vibrant local tradition within the contexts of a modernising economy, & a postcolonial, post-Cold War world order.

This sourcebook contains more than 160 documents and writings that reflect the development of Taiwanese literature from the early modern period to the twenty-first century. Selections include seminal essays in literary debates, polemics, and other landmark events; interviews, diaries, and letters by major authors; critical and retrospective essays by influential writers, editors, and scholars; transcripts of historical speeches and conferences; literary-society manifestos and inaugural journal prefaces; and governmental policy pronouncements that have significantly influenced Taiwanese literature. These texts illuminate AsiaÕs experience with modernization, colonialism, and postcolonialism; the character of TaiwanÕs Cold War and postÐCold War cultural production; gender and environmental issues; indigenous movements; and the changes and challenges of the digital revolution. TaiwanÕs complex history with Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese colonization; strategic geopolitical position vis-ˆ-vis China, Japan, and the United States; and status as a hub for the East-bound circulation of technological and popular-culture trends make the nation an excellent case study for a richer understanding of East Asian and modern global relations.

This collection is the first volume in English to examine the entire span of modern Taiwanese literature, from the first decades of the twentieth century to the present.

Few people beyond the shores of Taiwan are aware that it is home to a population of indigenous peoples who for more than fifteen thousand years have lived on the island. Over the years, through the Chinese imperial period, the Japanese occupation, and for most of the twentieth century, the indigenous peoples of Taiwan were marginalized and deprived of rights. However, with the lifting of martial law in 1987, new government policies regarding ethnic groups, and growing interest in Taiwan's aboriginal peoples, indigenous writing began to blossom. With its intense and lyrical explorations of a fading culture, indigenous writing has become an important topic of discussion in Taiwanese literary circles. This collection of indigenous literature is the first such anthology in English. In selecting the stories, essays, and poems for the anthology, the editors provide a representative sampling from each of Taiwan's nine indigenous tribes. The writers explore such themes as the decline of traditional ways of life in Taiwan's aboriginal communities, residual belief in ancestral spirits, assimilation into a society dominated by Han Chinese, and the psychological and economic encroachment of the outside world. Their writings offer previously unheard perspectives on the plight of aboriginal cultures and the experiences of Taiwanese minorities. John Balcom has included an introduction to provide the reader with background information on Taiwan's indigenous peoples. The introduction addresses the origins of Taiwan's Austronesian peoples and general information on their culture, languages, and history. A discussion of the growth and development of indigenous literature, its sociolinguistic and cultural significance, and the difficulties faced by such writers is also included.

This is a comprehensive portrait of Taiwan. It covers the major periods in the development of this small but powerful island province/nation. The work is designed in the style of the multi-volume "Cambridge History of China".

As the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in Asia and host the first annual gay pride in the Sinophone Pacific, Taiwan is a historic center of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture. With this blazing path of activism, queer Taiwanese literature has also risen in prominence and there is a growing popular interest in stories about the transgression of gender and sexual norms. Since the lifting of martial law in 1987, queer authors have redefined Taiwan's cultural scene, and throughout the 1990s many of their works won the most prestigious literary awards and accolades. This anthology provides a deeper understanding of queer literary history in Taiwan. It includes a selection of short stories, previously untranslated, written by Taiwanese authors dating from 1975 to 2020. Readers are introduced to a wide range of themes: bisexuality, aging, mobility, diaspora, AIDS, indigeneity, recreational drug use, transgender identity, surrogacy, and many others. The diversity of literary tropes and styles canvased in this book reflects the profusion of gender and sexual configurations that has marked Taiwan's complex history for the past half century. Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader is a timely and important resource for readers interested in Taiwan studies, queer literature, and global cultural studies. This book is part of the Cambria Literature from Taiwan Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and National Taiwan Normal University.

For centuries, various great powers have both exploited and benefited Taiwan, shaping its multiple and frequently contradictory identities. Offering a narrative of the island's political history, the author contends that it is best understood as a continuous struggle for security.

"Featuring rare interviews and sophisticated analysis, this book sheds light on Hou's narrative innovations and aesthetic triumphs while, along the way, unlocking some of the mysteries lurking behind one of the greatest bodies of cinematic work ever produced." -MICHAEL BERRY, University of California Santa Barbara "Lupke's book provides comprehensive coverage, detailed contextualization, and insightful analysis from Hou's earliest works to his most recent accomplishment. The narrative is particularly compelling because it weaves cultural and social contexts and filmic texts together, and it brings various formal elements (image, editing, language, music) to bear upon one another. The book also includes careful comparison with another East Asian auteur Ozu Yasujirô. The Sinophone Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien is a significant addition." -GUO-JUIN, HONG, Duke University "Lupke's comprehensive and original study excavates the literary inspirations of Hou's filmmaking, showing how Wu Nianzhen, Shen Congwen, and especially Zhu Tianwen shape his philosophy and aesthetic. In Lupke's convincing account, the anti-filial behaviors of their characters, which have attracted little critical attention, are the key to understanding their shared concern for the visible dissolution of the family in the modern world. In addition to its lucid analysis, this book contextualizes the filmmaking history of Hou in ways that illustrate the cultural and political significance of studying Taiwan Cinema in a global context." -HSIU-CHUANG DEPPMAN, Oberlin College "Serving both as an excellent comprehensive introduction to the filmmaker and as a series of in-depth readings, this informative, engaging, and insightful book covers the full range of Hou's work. Writing clearly and elegantly, Lupke perceptively relates Hou's films to both literary and cinematic antecedents. Aside from Hou's well-known connection to Taiwan's 'native soil' literature, Lupke highlights as well the filmmaker's debt to earlier mainland Chinese authors such as Shen Congwen, Zhang Ailing, and Hu Lancheng. Hou's singular contribution to film aesthetics, summarized as 'stasis within motion,' comes through vividly and convincingly." -JASON MCGRATH, University of Minnesota *This book includes images.

Born in Taiwan, raised in the scholarly traditions of ancient China but forced into the Japanese educational system, Hu Taiming, the protagonist of Orphan of Asia, ultimately finds himself estranged from all three cultures. Taiming eventually makes his mark in the colonial Japanese educational system and graduates from a prestigious college. However, he finds that his Japanese education and his adoption of modern ways have alienated him from his family and native village. He becomes a teacher in the Japanese colonial system but soon quits his post and finds that, having repudiated his roots, he doesn't seem to belong anywhere. Thus begins the long journey for Taiming to find his rightful place, during which he is accused of spying for both China and Japan and witnesses the effects of Japanese imperial expansion, the horrors of war, and the sense of anger and powerlessness felt by those living under colonial rule. Zhuoliu Wu's autobiographical novel is widely regarded as a classic of modern Asian literature and a groundbreaking expression of the postwar Taiwanese national consciousness.