Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora


Book Description

What happens when language wars are not about hurling insults or quibbling over meanings, but are waged in the physical sounds and shapes of language itself? Native and foreign speakers, mother tongues and national languages, have jostled for distinction throughout the modern period. The fight for global dominance between the English and Chinese languages opens into historical battles over the control of the medium through standardization, technology, bilingualism, pronunciation, and literature in the Sinophone world. Encounters between global languages, as well as the internal tensions between Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, present a dynamic, interconnected picture of languages on the move. In Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora, Jing Tsu explores the new global language trade, arguing that it aims at more sophisticated ways of exerting influence besides simply wielding knuckles of power. Through an analysis of the different relationships between language standardization, technologies of writing, and modern Chinese literature around the world from the nineteenth century to the present, this study transforms how we understand the power of language in migration and how that is changing the terms of cultural dominance. Drawing from an unusual array of archival sources, this study cuts across the usual China-West divide and puts its finger on the pulse of a pending supranational world under “literary governance.”




The Columbia Sourcebook of Literary Taiwan


Book Description

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 Asia's experience with modernization, colonialism, and postcolonialism; the character of Taiwan's Cold War and post–Cold War cultural production; gender and environmental issues; indigenous movements; and the changes and challenges of the digital revolution. Taiwan's complex history with Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese colonization; strategic geopolitical position vis-à-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.




Colonial Taiwan


Book Description

This book offers a thorough and thought-provoking study on the impact of Japanese colonialism on Taiwan’s literary production from the 1920s to 1945. It redresses the previous nationalist and Japan-centric interpretations of works from Taiwan’s Japanese period, and eschews a colonizer/colonized dichotomy. Through a highly sensitive textual analysis and contextual reading, this chronologically structured book paints a multi-layered picture of colonial Taiwan’s literature, particularly its multi-styled articulations of identities and diverse visions of modernity. By engaging critically with current scholarship, Lin has written with great sentiment the most complete history of the colonial Taiwanese literary development in English.




Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, No. 47


Book Description

Apart from “new poetry” composed in the vernacular language, the tradition of classical poetry originating in China has also been maintained in Taiwan. We cannot ignore the fact that those poets who continued to compose classical verse, as well as the activities of their poetry societies, are yet another aspect of the diversity of Chinese-language poetic development in Taiwan which at the same time has unique local characteristics. Professor Huang's organization of the issue includes an introductory essay, entitled “Poems that Speak of Taiwan—Speaking of Taiwan Poetry” in which she gives a brief summary of the historical background and special character of the development of classical poetry in Taiwan. According to her careful plan, Professor Huang divided the poems translated for this special edition into six thematic sections: 1) Taiwan and Taiwanese in the Interstices of History (6 poems) 2) Crossing the Ocean to Taiwan, Putting Down Roots that Grow Along with Chinese Culture (5 poems) 3) Poems on the Aesthetics of Natural Landscape Scenery (6 poems) 4) Climate, Natural Resources, and Food (6 poems) 5) Folk Customs, Festivals, and Sacrificial Ceremony (4 poems) 6) Poems Expressing Emotions, Sentiments and Criticisms (7 poems) In the poetry selected for this issue we see the rich, expansive content of classical Chinese verse from Taiwan. That verse manifests the responses of Taiwanese poets to their times, to nature, to places and to people. It also reflects the many faces of Taiwan's specific temporal and geographical background through depictions of local experiences and the local spirit. 台灣詩歌的發展,除了以白話文創作的新詩之外,還有繼承中國古典詩歌傳統、延續不絕的古典詩歌創作者及其詩社活動,呈現出台灣漢詩發展的多樣性,同時又有其在地特色。 在黃美娥教授的策劃下,這一專輯的內容,除了詩選以外,本輯還有特地請黃教授撰寫一篇導論〈詩說台灣.說台灣詩〉,簡述台灣古典詩發展的歷史背景和主要特色。另一篇是黃教授撰寫的學術論文,〈實踐與轉化:日治時代臺灣傳統詩社的現代性體驗〉(摘譯)。關於詩選,共選31家,34首,根據題材,分成6個主題,以呈現台灣古典漢詩的特色。在題材上,反映社會和生活的開闊性和呼應歷史和時代的現代性。







Twentieth Century China


Book Description

Emphasizing reference works published since 1964, these volumes cover books, periodicals, and inclusions (i.e., chapters in edited volumes) on the 1911 Revolution, the Republic of China (1949--), post-1911 Taiwan, post-1911 Hong Kong and Macao, and post-1911 overseas Chinese.







Library of Congress Subject Headings


Book Description




台灣文學英譯叢刊(No. 51)


Book Description

Yeh Shih-t'ao (1925-2008) was an outstanding Taiwanese novelist, literary critic and historian of Taiwan literature. In the history of the development of contemporary Taiwan literature he occupies an incomparably important position. As a literary historian, Yeh's magnum opus is An Outline History of Taiwan Literature (hereafter Outline). It is a comprehensive account that treats the subject of Taiwan literature from the perspective of Taiwan. Although it is only an outline, the book has very special significance in the history of Taiwan literature. 葉石濤(1925-2008)是台灣傑出的小説家、文學批評家、和台灣文學史家,在近代台灣文學發展史上具有無比重要的地位。作爲文學史家,他的巨著當推《台灣文學史綱》。這是以台灣的觀點所闡述的第一本通史。雖然只是綱要,這本書在台灣文學史上,具有特殊的意義,主要在於以台灣人的觀點詮釋台灣文學的歷史發展。




Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present


Book Description

In recent years, schools have started introducing more inclusive syllabi emphasizing the works and ideas of previously overlooked or underrepresented writers. Readers of all ages can now explore the rich contributions of writers from around the world. These writers have various backgrounds, and unlike most writers from the U.S. or the United Kingdom, information on them in English can be difficult to find. Encyclopedia of World Writers: 1800 to the Present covers the most important writers outside of the U.S., Britain, and Ireland since 1800. More than 330 insightful, A-to-Z entries profile novelists, poets, dramatists, and short-story writers whose works are anthologized in textbooks or assigned in high school English classes. Entries range in length from 200 to 1,000 words each and include a biographical sketch, synopses of major works, and a brief bibliography. Dozens of entries are new to this edition and many existing entries have been updated and significantly expanded with new "Critical Analysis" sections. Coverage includes: Chinua Achebe Margaret Atwood Roberto Bolaño Albert Camus Khalid Hosseini Victor Hugo Mohammad Iqbal Franz Kafka Stieg Larsson Mario Vargas Llosa Naghib Mahfouz Gabriel García Márquez Kenzaburo Oe Marcel Proust Leo Tolstoy Emile Zola and more.