Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century

Dr. Chia-rong Wu specializes in Sinophone literature and film through the lens of postcolonial theories, Indigenous studies, diaspora, and ecocriticism. Dr. Wu is the author of Supernatural Sinophone Taiwan and Beyond (Cambria Press, 2016) and Remapping the Contested Sinosphere: The Cross-cultural Landscape and Ethnoscape of Taiwan (Cambria Press, 2020). Additionally, Dr. Wu is serving on the International Advisory Board of Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature (Routledge Book Series), Cultural History Editorial Advisory Board (Bloomsbury Book Series), and the Advisory Board of Taiwan Lit (online journal centering on studies of Taiwan literature and culture). Professor Ming-ju Fan is an established scholar in the field of Taiwan literature study. Her research focus is on feminism, literary theory, and modern and contemporary novels. She is the author of multiple books, including Critic Artisan《書評職人》 (Unitas, 2019), Spatial/Textual/Politics《空間/文本/政治》 (Linking Books, 2015), Literary Geography—Spatial Reading of Taiwanese Literature《文學地理─台灣文學的空間閱讀》 (Rye Field, 2008), Chronological Searches of Taiwanese Women’s Fiction 《眾裏尋她－台灣女性小說縱論》 (Rye Field, 2002 & 2008), and Like a box of chocolate: Criticisms on Contemporary Literature and Culture《像一盒巧克力─當代文學文化評論》(Ink Publishing, 2005). She is also the co-editor of The Columbia Sourcebook of Literary Taiwan (Columbia University Press, 2014). She has received honors such as Ministry of Science and Technology Research Award and Reward Special Talents multiple times. Moreover, she has been serving as the co-editor of Journal of Taiwan Literary Studies since 2010.

Introduction: Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century

Chia-rong Wu and Ming-ju Fan

Part One: The Reconstruction of History and Politics

1. Democracy Detoured and a Narrator Detached in the Political Fiction of Lai Xiangyin

Ming-ju Fan

2. A Venture into Taiwan’s Political Changes and Historical MemoriesThrough Li Ang’s “Beef Noodle Soup”

Yenna Wu

3. Homegrown Stories: Gan Yao-ming’s Fiction

Bert Scruggs

Part Two: Genres, Forms, and Ideas

4. Clipping Wings: A Chronicle and Wang Wen-hsing’s Art

Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang

5. Xia Yu, the Supreme Stylist

Michelle Yeh

6. Everything Everywhere All at Once: The New Taiwan in Egoyan Zheng’s Science Fiction

Wen-chi Li

Part Three: Reflections upon Gender and Sexuality

7. Chen Xue, Missing Fathers, and Queer Alternatives

Carlos Rojas

8. Sexuality and Trauma: Zhang Yixuan’s The Love that is Temporary and A Farewell Letter

LinshanJiang

9. Liglav Awu, Child of the “Double Country”: the Clarion Voice of Indigenous Women in Taiwan

Fanny Caron

Part Four: On Ethnicities and Races

10. Through an Indigenous Lens: Syaman Rapongan’s Rewriting of Oceanic Taiwan

Chia-rong Wu

11. Migrants of Today, Migrants of Tomorrow in Wu Ming-yi’s Literary WorksGwennaël Gaffric

12. Anti-Japan or Becoming-Japanese: Li Yongping’s Writing on Japan in Postcolonial Taiwan

Min-xu Zhan

13. Huang Chong-kai and the Taiwanese Novel of Ideas

Nicholas Y. H. Wong

Part Five: Taiwan Literature in the Age of Globalization

14. Escape and Return: Ghostly Representations of Home and Abroad in Kevin Chen’s “Summer Trilogy”

Pei-yin Lin

15. Sketches on a Blank Slate: Shawna Yang Ryan’s Future-oriented Memories of the Past

Irmy Schweiger

16. National Border on the Tip of Tongue: The Limit of Cosmopolitan Citizenship in Li Kotomi’s Count Down to Five Seconds of Crescent Moon

Sophia Huei-Ling Chen

“This is a very interesting book … . Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century hence offers an extremely useful guide to the most important names, together with close analyses of their main works and is consequently highly recommended.” (Bradley Wintertion, taipeitimes.com, June 8, 2023)