Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, no. 48 ISSN 1097-5845 GPN 1011001858 Copyright © 2021 The Publisher of this journal wishes to express its appreciation to National Taiwan University Press for its assistance in the production and publication of this volume in print and in electronic format. Editorial control of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series is the sole responsibility of the US-Taiwan Literature Foundation. US-Taiwan Literature Foundation California, U.S.A. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Publication of this issue of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series would not have been possible without the US-Taiwan Literature Foundation and we gratefully acknowledge that support here. Co-editor Terence Russell, guest editor Bert Scruggs, and copy editor Fred Edwards have worked extremely hard to bring this issue to press. We also wish to thank Chia-yun Yen of National Taiwan University Press for her assistance with the final editing, design, and production of this volume.
台灣文學英譯叢刊第四十八集選目 Contents Foreword to the Special Retrospective on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series........ vii Kuo-ch’ing Tu Translated by Terence Russell
「《台灣文學英譯叢刊》25 週年回顧專輯」卷頭語....... xiii 杜國清
Introduction: The Serendipitous and the Organic................... xix Bert Scruggs
PART 1
Studies
From “Regionalism” to “Nativism”: An Introduction to the English Translation of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s Taiwan Wenxue Shigang (An Outline History of Taiwan Literature)................................................ 3 Kuo-ch’ing Tu Visualizing Bentuhua: The Recreation of Taiwanese Literature through Translation by Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series......................................................................................................................... 17 Bert Scruggs and Táňa Dluhošová
“Worlding” Taiwan Literature, Rewriting Its History: Writing for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series................................................................................................. 65 Richard Rong-bin Chen The Role of Colonial Literature in the Translation of Taiwanese Literature into English 台灣文學英譯中殖民地文學的角色................................................. 77 Chia-li Kao The Development of Taiwan Literary Studies in North America: Taking the Society for the Study of Taiwan Literature and Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series as Examples 北美臺灣文學研究的發展 : 以「台灣文學研究會」與《台 灣文學英譯叢刊》為例............................................................................. 91 Li-hsuan Chang Translated by Vanessa Yee Kwan Wong
Essays Translating for Fun and Meaning.......................................................... 113 Howard Goldblatt Sticky Rice Tamale......................................................................................... 119 Sylvia Li-chun Lin Hanami: Happy Moments with Professor Kuo-ch’ing Tu and
Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series...................................... 131 Jenn-Shann Lin Bringing Taiwan Literature to the World........................................... 141 John Balcom and Yingtsih Hwang “The Three Musketeers” as the Second Generation of Modern Literature............................................................................................................. 143 Hengsyung Jeng
PART2
Poetry
Poems for Taiwan 台灣詩情........................................................................................................... 161 Kuo-ch’ing Tu Translated by Terence Russell Gazing at the Sea from Seven Stars Beach 七星潭望海 /161 On the Banks of Mist-emitting Stream (Liwu Xi) 立霧溪畔 /162 Jinguashi at Night 金瓜石之夜 /162 The Legend of Yeliu 野柳神話 /163 Our National Flag over the Red Hairs’ Fort 紅毛城上的國旗 /165 Heaven’s Eye Gate on Spirit Eagle Mount 靈鷲山天眼門 /165 The Tale of the Potholes 壺穴物語 /166 Pursuing Deer at Sun Moon Lake 日月潭逐鹿 /167 Gazing up at Mount Ali’s Red Cypress 仰望阿里山紅檜 /168 An Old Stump on Mount Ali 阿里山老樹頭 /168 The Ruins of the Old Fort of Anping 安平古堡殘跡 /169 An Antiquarian Tour of the Eternal Golden Castle 億載金城巡古 /170
The Old Walls of Hengchun 恒春古城 /171 The Eluanbi Lighthouse 鵝鑾鼻燈塔 /172 Taiwan’s Tail 台灣尾 /173
Studies Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Poetic Theory and the Seven Strands of His Poems 杜國清的詩論及詩作的七個脈絡....................................................177 Hengsyung Jeng Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Writings on Symbolism 以象示徵，與美同遊：杜國清象徵詩論研究........................209 Tien Chu Translated by Brian Skerratt The Construction and Transformation of Samâdhi: Tu Kuoch’ing’s System of Poetics and Aesthetic Practice 「三昧」的建構與轉化：杜國清詩學體系與美學實踐....247 Tu Shu-wei Translated by Terence Russell Editors, Translators and Contributors..................................................271 About Subscription.........................................................................................278
Foreword to the Special Retrospective on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series Kuo-ch’ing Tu
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t has been twenty-five years since the founding of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series (hereafter TLETS) in 1996. To date we have produced a total of forty-eight issues. The years have slipped by so swiftly! This volume has been specially planned to both commemorate and celebrate this milestone, and we have invited University of California, Irvine, professor Bert Scruggs to serve as guest editor to assist with its preparation and realization. The issue is divided into two parts: the first part is dedicated to a review of the publication history of the journal, its manner of selecting works to publish, as well as its contributions to the scholarly field. There are also research essays that consider the works chosen for translation themselves. The second part of the issue commemorates my retirement after more than forty years of teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The main objectives of my work have been the English translation and introduction of Taiwan Literature. We have, therefore, included articles that consider my poetry, English translation, and scholarly research. With reference to the first part of the issue, Professor Scruggs discusses his perspective in his introduction. It is especially notable Foreword
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that since the founding of TLETS the journal has consistently placed Taiwanese subjectivity at the heart of its editorial planning. After over twenty years of hard work, and with the development of Taiwan’s social history, the value of this orientation has become more apparent, and this has been affirmed in academic discourse. The article provided by Professor Scruggs and Táňa Dluhošová of the Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, which employs digital analysis to examine the journal’s content, is highly innovative. Richard Rong-bin Chen’s essay discusses the journal’s role in the “worlding” of Taiwan literature, and in the rewriting of Taiwan’s literary history. It is nicely complemented by Kao Chiali’s paper, “The Role of Colonial Literature in English Translation of Taiwan Literature,” which raises the possibility that among Englishspeaking nations Taiwan literature from the Japanese colonial period may be a link to world literature. And Chang Li-hsuan’s “The Development of Taiwan Literary Studies in North America” helps us to understand the role played by our journal in the literary perspectives and historical context of the nativist movement which emerged as part of the general revival of Taiwan consciousness during the mid-1990’s. As for the second part of the issue, when the journal published the “Special Issue on Tu Kuo-ch’ing” (No. 44) page limitations meant that we could not publish a number of items. With this issue we have been able to find space to publish them. Perhaps the most important of those pieces are Jeng Hengsyung’s “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Poetic Theory and the Seven Stands of His Poems” and Chu Tien’s “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Writings on Symbolism.” The former article is a far-reaching discussion of the correlation between my theoretical work and my poetry. The latter deals with my poetic theory and how my work elucidates the interconnection between Eastern and Western views of symbolism. It is a deeply perceptive engagement with my writing. The essay, “The Construction and Transformation of Samâdhi: Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s System of Poetics and Aesthetic Practice” by Tu Shu-wei, who recently received his Ph.D. from the NTU viii
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Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, inquires into the modernity of my poetry as a “quest for the modern,” and seeks the classicism and translatability of the poetics in my “return to the East.” He also considers how my system of poetics and creative praxis as structured by “Samâdhi” [Sanmei] and the “Four Dimensions” [siwei] constitutes a way of compensating for the inadequacies of the introverted poetic theories found in the Bamboo Hat [Li] Poetry Society. He goes on to demonstrate how Tu’s aesthetic concept of “what makes poetry poetry” supplements the outward looking realist poetics of Bamboo Hat. It is a uniquely perceptive contribution to scholarship. I also offer a selection of my creative writing in this issue deftly translated by one of the co-editors of the journal, Terence Russell. Since I am a Taiwanese poet, I offer the fifteen poems in the “Poems for Taiwan” series which describe the scenery of Taiwan. “Poems for Taiwan” belong to my “travel inspired poems,” more about which can be found in the article by Chen Wei-lin of Tsing Hua University entitled “Moving and Crossing, Residing and Overlapping: Asian Imagination and Identification of Travel Poems of Tu Kuo-ching,” published in Issue 65 of Xingda renwen xuebao [Chung-hsing University Journal of the Humanities]. In this issue we are also including my introduction to the English translation of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s An Outline History of Taiwan Literature, which I have entitled “From ‘Regionalism’ to ‘Nativism’: A Historical Perspective of Taiwan Literature Rooted in the Soil” (December 2009). We wished to include this piece partially to demonstrate the evolution of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s basic view of literary history. But we also wished to show how the illustration and practical application of Yeh’s historical view have been the fundamental guiding principles and theoretical core in the editing of TLETS. As social and political conditions in Taiwan continue to develop, Taiwanese subjectivity will become more and more distinct. This is something that we can foresee, and it correlates with the editorial objectives that we stated at the very outset of the publication of our journal: “TLETS is published with the purpose Foreword
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of introducing to English readers voices from Taiwan literature from recent publications in Taiwan, namely, Taiwanese writers’ and scholars’ viewpoints on their own literature. This is to promote a better understanding and effective knowledge among scholars abroad of the current state and tendencies of literature as it has developed in Taiwan, as well as to enhance the study of Taiwanese literature from international perspectives.” (Foreword TLETS No. 1, August 1996). Looking back on our hard work over more than twenty years, TLETS has accomplished so much that we cannot but express our heartfelt gratitude to the many authors, scholars, and translators who have participated in the work of the journal. I am deeply moved by the concern, support, and unstinting effort that these people have devoted to the publication of Taiwan literature in English translation, whether it be in translation work itself, in their scholarly contributions, or through their suggestions for the future development of TLETS as expressed in the articles that they have written specially for this issue. The English translation of Taiwan literature is a demanding, long-term cultural and scholarly endeavor. In my essay “As Taiwan Literature Walks Toward the World, How Long is the Road?” I stressed that it requires long-range planning and a determination to persevere if we are going to achieve our goals. The most important among those goals must be to select literature that reveals the subjectivity of Taiwan literature, as well as demonstrates the special qualities of the land that is Taiwan, her people, society, history, and culture. Only then will the unique attributes of Taiwan literature gain international recognition and appreciation. This conviction, which is represented in the formulation of themes, the choice of works for translation, and the editing of the English language texts, constitutes the constant and distinguishing style of TLETS. Literary translation is only the foundation of cultural research. And the publication of TLETS represents only the laying of the roadbed for the thoroughfare along which Taiwan literature x
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walks towards the world. During our more than twenty years of hard work we have made at least partial progress in carrying out our mission. In seeking to fulfil our long-range vision we have never considered personal gain or accolades. Rather, we have been a group of friends silently working toward our goals, and this is something that I cherish very deeply. Now, as I pause to reminisce fondly and look toward the future, I am tremendously grateful to the publication center of National Taiwan University for their cooperation. Thanks also go to Professor Terence Russell for continuing to take responsibility for the English language editing, and to Professor Bert Scruggs for joining our editorial team. I hope that our scholarly journal will continue to attract the participation of even more young scholars and translators so that we can pass the torch to a new generation and, with unity of purpose and combined efforts, progress in our common goal of helping Taiwan literature walk toward the world. Finally, by way of a conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to share with our readers a poem that I recently wrote entitled “Fallen Blossoms.” This poem expresses my feelings as a poet and a scholar about retirement and entry into a new stage of my life. It inevitably reveals some personal emotions, but also speaks of my experience and understanding of poetry and life in terms of creativity as well as my earnest hopes for the continued development of Taiwan literature. Fallen blossoms return to the earth deliberately wishing to change into spring mud to nourish succeeding generations. My only wish is that the growth and translation of Taiwan literature will continue for generations to come and that its many blossoms may bloom gloriously. After looking back we must look to the future. This notion is revealed in the cover design of this issue: fragrance redounds everywhere, and after twenty-five years of quiet cultivation the seeds that were sowed are sprouting and growing, deeply rooted in the soil of Taiwan. Eventually, hundreds of flowers come into full bloom, all contending for our attention in this fascinating literary garden. Foreword
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Fallen Blossoms Thoughts on Retirement The past can never be returned to Looking back I can never bring back lost years of youth Life can only be walked forward After scaling peaks and ridges we descend the slope Casting off the burden of our emotional attachments One by one our memories fall and wither fallen blossoms cover the ground The wind blows and they rise to dance serenely dancing out The twilight of my life when nothing stirs my mind My song of detachments flows with the wind It isn’t that I no longer cherish the fallen blossoms The fallen blossoms no longer care about the glory of spring And resolutely welcome their destiny Of returning to their native soil to turn into the mud of spring Our lives are filled with beautiful misunderstandings Joy comes from the enlightenment of scrutiny I watch as a fallen blossom flutters back to its branch But look, it’s a butterfly! Notes: In his poem “Reply to Vice-magistrate Zhang,” Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei (699–759) wrote: “In my twilight years I love only tranquility / Nothing stirs my mind.” In her lyric verse “Calming the Winds and Waves,” the Northern Song poet Madame Wei (1040–1103) wrote: “It isn’t that I no longer cherish the fallen blossoms / The fallen blossoms no longer care for spring glory.” In his poem cycle “Miscellaneous Verse from 1839,” the Qing dynasty poet Gong Zizhen (1792–1841) wrote: “The fallen red blossoms aren’t without feeling / they change into spring mud to protect the flowers.” Japanese haiku poet Arakida Moritake (1473–1549) wrote the line: “A fallen blossom returns to its branch. Look, a butterfly.” The Anglo-American poet Ezra Pound translated this line: “The fallen blossom flies back to its branch: A butterfly.”
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〈《叢刊》25 週年回顧專輯〉卷頭語 杜國清
歲
月荏苒， 創刊於 1996 年的《 台灣文學英譯叢刊 》 持續了二十五年，共出版 48 集。我們特地策劃這一 紀念專輯，以示慶祝。我們特地邀請爾灣加州大學台灣文 學教授古芃擔任策劃和執行的客座編輯。這一專輯包括兩 個部分：第一部分是關於《叢刊》 出版史的回顧、選譯作 品的特色、對學術界的貢獻和評價、以及針對譯介作品的 研究論文。另一部分是關於以英文翻譯和介紹台灣文學為 宗旨的創刊者杜國清的詩作英譯和研究論文，作爲他在聖 塔芭芭拉加州大學任教四十多年的退休紀念。 關於第一部分， 古芃教授在導論中， 提出他的觀點 和論述， 值得特別强調的是：《 叢刊 》 創刊以來以台灣 主體性為核心的編輯方向，經過二十多年的努力，這一導 向隨著台灣社會歷史的發展， 更加明顯， 也獲得研究者 的肯定，一如古芃教授和捷克科學院研究員路丹妮（Táňa Dluhošová） 合撰的專文， 以《 叢刊 》 為研究對象的電腦 分析所顯示的現象和觀察，頗有新意，以及陳榮彬教授的 論文所提示的，《叢刊》呈現出「台灣文學的世界視野」 Foreword
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（Worlding Taiwan Literature） 和 「 台 灣 文 學 史 的 重 新 書 寫 」（Rewriting Its History）。 呼應「 台灣文學的世界視 野」，高嘉勵教授的〈台灣文學英譯中殖民地文學的角色〉 （The Role of Colonial Literature in the Translation of Taiwanese Literature into English） 一文， 提議英語國家中， 日治時期 台灣文學作爲與世界文學鏈結的可能性。此外，張俐璇教 授的〈 北美臺灣文學研究的發展 〉， 有助於對本叢刊在 九〇年代中期應運而生的本土文學觀及其歷史脈絡的瞭 解。 關於第二部分， 本《 叢刊 》 在 44 集〈 杜國清專輯 〉 中所譯介的作品之外，當初因受到篇幅的限制，無法全部 刊登，因此在本集中接續出版。其中重要的兩篇是鄭恆雄 的〈杜國清的詩論及詩作的七個脈絡〉和朱天的〈以象示 徵，與美同遊：杜國清象徵詩論研究〉。前者全面論述我 在創作上理論與詩情的呼應，涵蓋面廣；後者針對我在詩 論上，對象徵主義東西詩觀互相照應的闡發，思辨深刻。 創作方面，由本刊英文編輯羅德仁教授精心翻譯，作爲台 灣詩人， 我所描述的台灣山水的系列作品〈 台灣詩情 〉 十五首。 臺大台灣文學研究所新進博士凃書瑋專論〈「三昧」 的建構與轉化：杜國清詩學體系與美學實踐〉一文，以「追 尋現代」探詢杜國清詩的「現代性」，以及「回返東方」 探詢他的詩作的「古典性」與「翻譯性」，並認為「三昧」 與「四維」的詩學體系建構與創作美學實踐，正好填補了 《笠》詩論「內向性」的不足，且以「詩之為詩」的審美 理念補足了《笠》外向的現實主義詩學，與鄭恆雄教授、 朱天的立論有所不同，具有獨到的見解和學術價值。 此外， 值得一提的是， 我為葉石濤的《 台灣文學史 綱》英文版而寫的一篇導論，〈從「鄉土」到「本土」： xiv
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以土地為依歸的台灣文學史觀〉（2009 年 12 月） ，在此 刊登，一方面是爲了闡發葉石濤的基本文學史觀的演進， 同時也藉此印證本叢刊的編輯導向及其理論核心，基本上 是這一史觀的呈現和實踐。隨著今後台灣社會和政治情勢 的發展，台灣的主體性將會越趨明顯，是可以預料的。這 一導向也呼應本叢刊開宗明義所揭示的出版宗旨：「在於 將最近在台灣出版的有關台灣文學的聲音，亦即台灣本地 的作家和研究者對台灣文學本身的看法，介紹給英語的讀 者，以期促進國際間對台灣文學的發展和動向能有比較切 實的認識，進而加强從國際的視野對台灣文學的研究。」 回顧二十多年來的努力，《叢刊》終於纍積如此豐富 的成果，不能不對許多作家、學者和翻譯者的參與和合作 表示由衷的感謝。他們對台灣文學的關心和支持、以及不 辭辛勞、對台灣文學英譯出版的付出和投入，不論是翻譯 或研究的心得或是對《叢刊》今後發展的建言和評論，都 表現在特地為這一專輯所寫的文章中，令我十分感動。 台灣文學的英譯， 是一項任重道遠的文化和學術工 程。我曾在〈台灣文學走向世界，路有多遠？〉的一篇文 章中强調，必須有長遠的計畫和永續經營的決心，才能克 竟其功。其中最重要的一點是：選譯的作品能夠呈現台灣 文學的主體性，表現出台灣這塊土地及其人民、社會、歷 史和文化特色，才能在國際上以其特殊屬性獲得肯定和賞 識。這一觀點呈現在擬定主題、選文翻譯、以及英文編輯 上，成爲本《叢刊》一貫的特殊風格。 文學翻譯只是文化研究的基礎。《叢刊》的出版，只 是為台灣文學走向世界鋪路的奠基工程。二十多年來的努 力，多少已完成階段性的任務。爲了實現這一長遠的願景， 不計現實利害得失，一起默默耕耘的道上朋友，讓我非常 感念。緬懷過去，展望未來，非常感謝臺大出版中心的出 Foreword
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版合作，羅德仁教授繼續擔任英文編輯，古芃教授參與編 輯團隊，以及希望這份學術刊物，今後能有更多台灣文學 的年輕學者和譯者參與，大家同心協力，朝向台灣文學走 向世界的共同目標，以新的面貌接棒持續下去。 最後，作爲結語，我想借這個機會，與讀者分享我最 近所寫的一首詩〈落花〉。 這首詩表達作爲詩人和學者的 我、對退休的感懷，以及面對人生進入另一階段的心情， 難免流露出個人的情緒， 但也呈現出我對詩與人生在創作 上的體會和領悟，以及對台灣文學永續發展的殷殷期盼。 落花回歸故土，有心化作春泥，滋養下一代，但願台灣文 學的滋長和翻譯，代代相傳，百花盛開。回顧之餘，展望 未來，這一願景也呈現在這集的封面設計中：遍地芬芳， 一點一滴默默耕耘，25 年間播下的種籽，發芽生長，根植 台灣，終將百花爭艷，成為一座迷人的花園。
落花 / 退休感懷 過去 永遠回不去了 回顧 顧不回已去的青春年華 生命 只能被往前走 攀山越嶺之後 走下坡 一路抛棄 感情的負荷 回憶紛紛飄零 落花滿地 隨風起舞 幽幽舞出 晚年的心境 萬事不關心 棄情之歌 隨風飄落 不是無心惜落花
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落花無意戀春華 決然 迎向宿命 回歸故土 化作春泥 人生 充滿美麗的誤會 喜悅 來自諦觀的智慧 眼看 落花飛回樹枝 原來是蝴蝶 !
唐詩人王維（699–759）《酬張少府》: 「晚年唯好靜，萬事不關心」。 北宋女詞人魏夫人（1040—1103）《定風波》：「不是無心惜落花，落花無意戀 春華」。 清詩人龔自珍（1792 － 1841）《 己亥雜事詩 》：「 落紅不是無情物， 化作春泥 更護花」。 日本俳句詩人荒木田守武 (Arakida Moritake, 1473-1549) 的名句：「落花枝に帰る と见れば胡蝶かな」。
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Introduction: The Serendipitous and the Organic Bert Scruggs
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his issue (No. 48) of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series (TLETS) differs from others because translations do not account for most of the content. Though there are fifteen translated poems and three translated research papers, the reminder of the volume is composed of five original prose essays [sanwen] by translators on TLETS, its founding editor Tu Kuo-ch’ing (K. C. Tu), or both and four original retrospective research papers on TLETS or Tu’s poetics. For clarity the work of the three translators and fourteen writers is divided into two parts. The Part One is dedicated to retrospective analyses and includes narratives and reflections related to TLETS and Tu. Part Two is comprised of a collection of poems written and selected by Tu and research essays devoted to the genealogy and aesthetics of Tu’s poetry and poetics. In Li-hsuan Chang’s research paper on TLETS and the study of Taiwan in Anglophone North America that is abridged and translated by Vanessa Yee Kwan Wong in this issue as “The Development of Taiwan Literary Studies in North America: Taking the Society for the Study of Taiwan Literature and Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series as Examples,” she notes the detailed work that KC Tu often undertakes to introduce the themes, topics, genres, and authors highlighted in each individual Introduction
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issue. Thankfully, I do not need to undertake such work for this issue because the topic at hand is the journal itself and its founding editor. The work of the contributors in Part 1 introduces the former, while the essays in Part 2, by Jeng Hengsyung and Tu Shuwei, do the heavy lifting for the latter. Naturally K. C. Tu's poetry speaks for itself. Serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way,” according to the New Oxford American Dictionary. And, according to the same source, serendipity is a coinage connected to The Principles of Serendip, a 1754 fairy tale by Horace Walpole wherein the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of ” (Walpole in New Oxford American Dictionary). It is conceivable that all the translators, contributors, editors, and readers who have arrived here together in this moment have done so serendipitously, like the wasp and flower rhizome suggested by Deleuze and Guattari (and translated by Massumi). Relatedly, there is a course that I regularly teach at the University of California, Irvine, called “Organic Taiwanese Fiction” that I describe to my students as designed to explore and trace the genealogy of Taiwan and a Taiwanese consciousness during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and to provide an understanding of the organic nature and continuing growth of representations of the islands in fiction. One of the goals of the class is to wean students from visual metaphors, to force them to stop thinking of fiction as lenses, mirrors, or prisms in which or by which to see Taiwanese culture and history. Rather than seeing Taiwan through a lens, reversed in a mirror, or refracted in a prism, we read fictional discourses as connected or coordinated parts of an organized and systematic whole. Fiction links us to something larger than ourselves: Taiwan. Bearing serendipity and organicism in mind, I would like to share three (of many) moments that connect me to K. C. Tu and TLETS. Two occurred in Tainan at the National Museum of Taiwan xx
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Literature. In the first instance it so happened that Tu and I were in Taiwan at the same time in December of 2008; in fact, neither one of us knew that the other was in Taipei until Chang Wen-hsun generously invited me to join herself, Tu, and others from National Taiwan University for lunch. As it happened, after lunch Tu invited me to meet him in Tainan the next day so we could eat lunch with faculty from the Taiwanese Literature Department at National Cheng-kung University and visit the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. We did meet for lunch in Tainan the next day, and thereafter went to the literature museum to meet with the director. Our meeting with him however was delayed and Tu and I ended up spending hours looking at exhibitions or drinking tea in the director’s waiting room. We were left alone or in conversations with various staff members because the director was fielding questions from newspapers and television crews. It just happened that the day that Tu and I visited the National Museum of Taiwan Literature together that year was also the very same day that Yeh Shi-t’ao died. My second encounter with Tu at the National Museum of Taiwan Literature came ten years later, when again I was visiting the city and found myself wandering through an exhibition of manuscripts from the desks of several Taiwanese authors. There were marginal notes on stories left behind by writers like Wu Chuo-liu and Yang K’uei, whose crossed-out characters, circled phrases, and page-spanning arrows left the story of the story on the page whether it was written in Japanese or Chinese. As I moved through the exhibition rooms, hand-written pages were replaced with computer-printer pages but there were still carets and other proofreader’s symbols, scribbles, and loops. Finally, in the last room as I neared the end of the exhibition there was a letter on display in an anachronous manual typewriter. When I leaned forward to take a closer look, I was surprised to see that the artifact on display was a mid-1990s cover letter from a funding application to support the translation of Taiwanese fiction into English in a scholarly journal. If funded, the journal would be called Taiwan Literature: English Introduction
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Translation Series, and the signature at the bottom of the page was K. C. Tu. My third serendipitous and organic moment with Tu and TLETS, that I am the guest editor tasked with writing this introduction to the issue on TLETS and twenty-five years of translating Taiwanese literature, probably does not (or maybe it does!) surprise you as much as it does me. Unlike Tu and so many others connected with this journal, I did not study literature as an undergraduate. What is more, when I moved to Taiwan in 1987, I had never studied Chinese and my introduction to Taiwan came from a college friend living in Taipei. So, perhaps I am like Walpole’s heroes, who “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” Certainly, when I took my first language class in Taipei I was not in quest of Taiwanese literature; I was more interested in shopping for produce in traditional markets and finding restrooms. Moreover, I had no idea that one day I would be linked, if only ever so tangentially, to the gifted translators who have contributed to TLETS over the past quarter century or to Tu Kuo-ch’ing and all that he has done for Taiwan and Taiwanese literature. Even so, being part of such an organized whole certainly seems to be happy and beneficial. As noted above, Part I of this issue contains five research papers. These original essays by scholars from Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Canada, and the United States of America also include two of the four translated essays. This section begins with a meticulous and important meditation on Yeh Shih-t’ao’s history of Taiwanese literature by Tu in the form of an introduction to the book. Although it does not directly address the history of TLETS, it is critically important to understanding the history of Taiwanese literature and of bentuhua that is central to the mission to this journal. In “Visualizing Bentuhua,” Táňa Dluhošová and I use computer visualizations to examine the role of TLETS in creating a translated Taiwanese literary tradition and TLETS’s relationship to other journals and volumes of translations in Taiwan, Europe, xxii
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and North America. Adopting a more theory-driven approach in “‘Worlding’ Taiwan Literature, Rewriting Its History,” Richard Rong-bin Chen examines the past twenty-five years of TLETS with ideas derived and borrowed from André Lefevere and Arif Dirlik, among others, to position historically and geopolitically Taiwanese literature and its translation. Also taking a theoretically informed tack, this time postcolonial, in “The Role of Colonial Literature in the Translation of Taiwanese Literature into English,” Chia-li Kao maps the canonization of a historical construction of Taiwanese colonial literature and traces its connections to world literature in the Anglophone academy generally and in TLETS particularly. Finally, in her February 2020 essay Li-hsuan Chang draws our attention to the fact that although much has been written about the significance of Taiwanese authors, journals, and literary associations in Japan during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan in Taiwanese literary histories, relatively little has been written about the influence of Taiwanese authors, journals, and literary circles in North America in the post-war and martial law contexts. Toward clarifying our understanding of more recent Taiwanese literary history and in the process bringing balance to the field, Chang documents and explores the influence of Taiwanese political, student, academic, and literary movements in North America, especially the Society for the Study of Taiwan Literature [Taiwanwenxue yanjiuhui] and TLETS. The full text with its several appendices and references to the publication of books in North America that could not be printed in Taiwan and the alliances among Taiwanese scholars and graduate students on various campuses is historically detailed and offers narratives that resonate with Green Island by Shawna Yang Ran; however, due to space limitations we only include the second half of the paper that focuses on K. C. Tu’s theory of world literatures in Chinese [Shihua wenxue], TLETS, and the importance of connections within and without both academic and national frontiers to understanding the study of Taiwanese literature in Taiwan. Introduction
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Part 1 is composed of essays of varying length by journal translators on TLETS, its founding editor K. C. Tu, or both. Howard Goldblatt reflects on his decades of translating, association with Tu, Nancy Chang Ing, TLETS, the Chinese Taipei PEN, as well as his pet peeve on “Taiwan literature” instead of “Taiwanese literature” with “Translating for Fun and Meaning.” (As a matter of fact, with this issue we have tried to accommodate this irksome and persistent ungrammatical convention. Throughout this issue of TLETS, there are references to both Taiwan and Taiwanese literature as per each contributor’s preference.) With “Sticky Rice Tamale,” Sylvia Li-chun Lin shares a halcyon moment in southern Taiwan and the happiness that flows from a well-turned translation. In “Hanami,” Jenn-Shann Lin compares his experiences with TLETS and K. C. Tu to the Japanese practice of flower viewing by exploring the moment as well as telling some stories about literary trees, flowers, and the beach at the University of California, Santa Barbara. John Balcom and Yingtsih Hwang celebrate and praise the accomplishments of TLETS and Tu’s indefatigable dedication to sharing Taiwanese literature in “Bringing Taiwan Literature to the World.” Last but certainly not least, in “The Three Musketeers” Hengsyung Jeng follows the trails of poetry, criticism, and fiction that he, Tu, and Wang Chen-ho have left behind since the three took over the editing of Modern Literature from Pai Hsien-yung, Wang Wen-hsing, and Ch’en Jo-hsi, 1960s college experiences that span decades, and in the case of Tu and himself continue to lengthen. Part 2 includes fifteen poems written by Tu and translated by TLETS co-editor Terence Russell. The poetry is a collection of musings and histories of Taiwan. Following the long-standing tradition of lyrically travelling the island of which there are Japanese, Chinese, and other poetic, fictional, and more recently filmic iterations, Tu offers pithy explorations of bays and mining towns among other locales that reveal something of the locational diversity and historical density of the island, as well as something, perhaps, of the poet himself. In any case, as I have already stated xxiv
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myself, K. C. Tu’s poetry speaks for itself." The essays in Part 2 beg to differ with my simple thoughts on Tu’s poetry by providing detailed theoretical and historical explications of his poetry. In “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Writings on Symbolism,” translated by Brian Skerratt, Tien Chu simultaneously dissects Tu’s poetic criticism and poetry vis-a-vis symbolism, the neighboring concept of imagery, and the various poets that Tu has studied and translated to disclose the relationship between theory and practice as well as the depth and density of Tu’s poetry and scholarship. Similarly, with “Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s Poetic Theory and the Seven Strands of His Poems,” Hengsyung Jeng uses Tu’s geometricization of poetics and his own historical and genealogical methodology to disentangle somewhat the multiplicity of aesthetics manifested in Tu’s poetry, revealing both the joys of close reading and the subtleties of Tu’s art. Finally, in “The Construction and Transformation of Samâdhi: Tu Kuo-ch’ing’s System of Poetics and Aesthetic Practice,” translated by Terence Russell, Shu-wei Tu adds even more layers to the understanding of K. C. Tu’s poetics offered in this issue by tracing the linkages and transmutations, serendipitous or otherwise, stemming from his translation of poets such as T. S. Eliot and Nishiwaki Junzaburō among others and how these changes connect with elements of Buddhist thought leading to “[in Tu’s poetry a] correspondence of all things, where the splendor of East and West entwine, and where there as a balance between the intellectual and the sensual.” In conclusion, I want to thank KC and Terry for their patience and guidance, thank and praise Terry and Fred for their careful editing of this unusual issue of TLETS, and assure the reader that the next issue will be a return to normalcy. Issue No. 49 will be devoted to new female writers and is already under way with guest editor Kuei-yun Lee from the Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Tsing Hua University.
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PART 1 Studies
From “Regionalism” to “Nativism”: An Introduction to the English Translation of Yeh Shih-t’ao’s Taiwan Wenxue Shigang [An Outline History of Taiwan Literature] Kuo-ch’ing Tu
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n Outline History of Taiwan Literature by Yeh Shih-t’ao was published in February 1987. It took the author almost three years to complete it; data gathering started in 1983 and the actual writing took from the summer of 1984 to December 1985. As the author acknowledged, his friends at Literary World [Wenxuejie] journal in southern Taiwan suggested that he take up the task of writing a history of Taiwan literature because it was “the most pressing task at that moment.” Writers and scholars in the south were alarmed and worried by news that mainland China was going to publish a voluminous work on the history of Taiwan literature. They maintained that the history of Taiwan literature must be viewed from the standpoint of Taiwan if it was to present a realistic account of developments, and the first published work on the history of Taiwan’s literature should be based on Taiwan’s own viewpoint. The most qualified author, of course, was the writer and critic Yeh Shih-t’ao, whose credentials and life experience were intertwined with the historical development of Taiwan literature in the twentieth century. The end result was that Yeh Shih-t’ao Studies / From “Regionalism” to “Nativism”
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published An Outline History of Taiwan Literature in February 1987, ten months earlier than A History of Modern Taiwan Literature [Xiandai Taiwan wenxueshi], which was co-authored by Bai Shaofan, Wang Yubin, Zhang Hengchun, and Wu Zhichun and published in China in December by Liaoning University Press. There have been numerous publications about Taiwan literature and its history by scholars in China, but this chef-d’oeuvre by Yeh Shih-t’ao was the first one published in Taiwan. It is a concise, wellorganized survey of the writing of Taiwan literature over the generations written from the perspective of Taiwan. It was not until ten years later, in 1997, that Professor Peng Jui-chin’s Forty Years of the New Taiwan Literature Movement [Taiwan xin wenxue yundong sishi nian], which focuses on new Taiwan literature, was published. What historical view on Taiwan literature is reflected in Yeh Shih-t’ao’s book? Yeh felt that the history of Taiwan should reflect what has happened on the island itself, the thought and behavior of the Taiwanese and Taiwanese society. In his preface, the author says, “My purpose in writing an outline of the history of Taiwan literature is to elucidate how, amid the currents of history, Taiwan literature developed a strong spirit of autonomy and forged its unique Taiwanese character.” The author’s preface further explains the historical background of the formation of this character: Taiwan has experienced invasion and rule by Holland, Spain, and Japan, and has been an immigrant society where Han Chinese and Indigenous peoples live together. These factors have fostered a lifestyle and population different in character from mainland Chinese society. Especially in the fifty years of Japanese rule and the forty years since the Retrocession, Taiwan has absorbed the essence of Western and Japanese literature in complete isolation from China and gradually developed a distinct independent character. One of the important tasks of modern Taiwan literature is to learn how to integrate the avant-garde techniques of the West into a literature possessing a traditional ethnic 4
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character, and thereby establish a literature endowed with a distinctive Taiwanese character as well as a global perspective.1 Informed by such a vision, Yeh Shih-t’ao drew up his outline of the history of Taiwan literature. The book has seven chapters highlighting the sweep of historical development, from the transplantation of traditional Chinese literature to the new Taiwan literature movement during the period of Japanese rule, through the war period of the 1940s, and the postwar period from the 1950s to the 1980s. Running through the book is a thread linking the entire history of Taiwan literature. There is a clear line of thought that aligns the facts with two consistent developmental trends: “regionalism” [xiangtu wenxue], which is the most prevalent and recurring characteristic of Taiwan literature; and “realism” [xianshi zhuyi], which has been the main current in the history of the new Taiwan literature. As we know, during the period of White Terror after World War II, Yeh Shih-t’ao was arrested for “not reporting a suspected Communist to the authorities.” He was sentenced to five years in prison, but he was released in 1954 after serving three years. After that, he remained silent for fifteen years until 1965, when he started to publish his fiction and criticism, gradually establishing his own critical view and literary theory. As an historian, Yeh Shih-t’ao’s view of Taiwan literature evolved in three stages. This is evident from the representative articles that he published during each stage. The critique “Taiwan’s Regional Literature” [Taiwan de xiangtu wenxue], representing the first stage, was published in November 1965. In this important article, he pledged to write a history of Taiwan literature that would “put in logical order the lives and works of Taiwanese writers
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Yeh Shih-t’ao, An Outline History of Taiwan Literature (Translation of the Japanese edition by Peng Xuanhan), (Kaohsiung: Chunhui, 2010), 8.
Studies / From “Regionalism” to “Nativism”
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[benshengji zuojia].” The term “benshengji” [of this province] was a term used to refer to Taiwanese by their place of birth. The term “Taiwanese” was politically taboo at that time because of fears it might stir up “Taiwanese consciousness.” In this article, Yeh Shiht’ao adopted the French scholar Hippolyte Taine’s (1828–1893) view, articulated in his Histoire de la littérature anglaise (1864), that literature is largely the product of the author’s race/nation, milieu/ environment, and time/history. Based on these three factors, Yeh examined the works of each writer and presented them as being “of this province,” emphasizing their connection to their native land and social milieu. During the 1960s, when modernism was in vogue, Yeh Shih-t’ao raised the banner of realism and regionalism, demonstrating his unique judgment and self-awareness. Afterwards, in 1966 and 1968, Yeh published two more treatises on the characteristics of Taiwanese writers and their works. In the 1966 article, “Taiwanese Writers and Their Fiction in the Past Two Years” [Liangnian lai de shengji zuojia jiqi xiaoshuo], he asserted, “the local color in the works of Taiwanese writers is like salt in life; without it you get no flavor….To neglect the consciousness of the native land is tantamount to losing the national style, and a literature without national style has no justification for its existence.” In his 1968 article “Taiwanese Writers and Their Works of the Last Year—and Comments on Taiwanese Writers’ Characteristics” [Yinian lai de shengji zuojia jiqi zuopin—jianlun shengji zuojia de tezhi], he identified three special features of the creative works of Taiwanese writers: (1) documentary mode, (2) regional stance, and (3) comparative richness of intellect and the ability to portray reality conceptually. The second stage in the development of Yeh’s view of Taiwan literature is represented by “An Introduction to the History of Taiwan Regional Literature” [Taiwan xiangtu wenxue shi daolun]. This article, published in May 1977, lit the flames of debate on regional literature. In addition to reiterating the concept of “xiangtu” [native land], which he first advocated in 1965, Yeh Shih-t’ao 6
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