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The Origins of the
Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature
In recent years research
into Taiwan has become an important field for research,
in the context of the recent push for the College of
Liberal Arts of National Taiwan University to promote
itself amongst all walks of life, at the start of the
academic year of 2004, the Institute formally
established its Master Program. The fundamental ideas
and knowledge pushing the Institute into existence can
be summarized into 5 main points as below:
1. Taiwanese Literature is the crystallization of
100s of years of Taiwanese Experience
Except for cultivation by
Aboriginals, Taiwan has gone undergone expansion under
the Dutch, The Zheng/Ming Period, it was then retaken by
the Qing only to be surrendered to the Japanese after
the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895); after the War of
Resistance, Guangfu then restored Taiwan to the Mainland
of China, the War of the Taiwan Straits soon followed,
resulting in the GuoMinDang moving to Taiwan, and so the
lifeblood of the Republic of China and Traditional
Chinese Culture came with it. Taiwanese Literature
reflects and accumulates more than 400 years of
Taiwanese Experience, a precious legacy that deserves
research.
2. Taiwanese Literature has
already become a specialist field of research
Taiwanese Literature is
rich and varied in content, including the Aboriginal
Oral Literary Tradition and Culture, Classical
Literature from the Ming and Qing Dynastic Periods,
Literature from the Japanese Colonial Period, including
works of both old and new literature in Japanese and
Chinese language, as well as literature from after 1949,
which was influenced heavily by modernist trends of
thought from European and American Literature, not to
mention the literature that sprang from the rethinking
of nativist literature, and the unstoppable flow of
classical literary creation. It can be described as
all-embracing, spanning several languages and cultures.
Although Taiwanese Literature has absorbed certain
aspects of Mainland, Japanese, European and American
Literature, it is not limited by this influence, in
terms of literary models and laws of aesthetics, as well
as the social experience and faith of conviction that it
reflects, and even in its form and style, which has its
own unique form and style of expression, endlessly
leading to the formation of new creative works. As a
result, to research Taiwanese Literature, it is
necessary to see it as a specialist field of research,
exploring and opening up new directions in the research
discipline of the humanities.
3. International Academic Circles’ Increasing
Interest in Taiwanese Literature
Due to the unique
characteristics of Taiwanese Literature, International
Academic Circles, specifically but not exclusively
Japan, the USA, the UK and Germany are all gradually
coming to view it as a field for full-time research,
teaching and learning, as well as for translation,
interpretation, and promotion. The research and teaching
of schools such as, for example, Tokyo University,
Ochanomizu University, Kyushu University, Tenri
University, the University of California, Colombia
University, the University of Texas and the University
of Washington, hold regular international conferences
relating to Taiwanese Literature, as well as translating
and interpreting literary works; SOAS (University of
London) has a Masters Level Course in Taiwanese
Literature, whilst Germany’s Ruhr University at Bochum
has a dedicated research unit for Taiwanese Culture and
Literature. As to the translation and interpretation of
Taiwanese Literary Works, it is thriving in places such
as the UK, France, the Czech Republic, the USA,
Australia and Japan. Confronted with such international
enthusiasm, the academic circles in Taiwan could not
afford to lose out, and needed to answer to the
international trend hence came the founding of the
Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature.
4. Academic Circles in Mainland China Are Actively
Pursuing Teaching and Research of Taiwanese Literature
Since Taiwanese Literature
was introduced into Mainland China in 1979, there has
been an active effort for the publishing,
interpretation, teaching and research of Taiwanese
Literature. In the subsequent 10 years, it solidly
established the research and teaching of Taiwanese
Literature they founded 13 specialist research units for
Literature from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Overseas Chinese
in places such as Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai and
Beijing and set up 4 national and regional academic
teams. 27 universities set up courses related to
Literature from Taiwan and Hong Kong. The richness and
achievement of Taiwanese Literature has also pricked the
attention of several Mainland scholars, according to the
1999 figures, at least 178 theses were published in the
Mainland dealing with Taiwanese Literature. Taiwanese
Literature is respected by the Mainland government
official structures as well as by scholars, but from an
interpretive perspective it still lacks complete
comprehension by Chinese Society, and the special traits
it possesses, therefore it is urgent that academic
circles in Taiwan make their voices heard, and put forth
the results of their research, exhibiting the uniqueness
and diversity of Taiwanese Literature.
5. Current Education and Societal Necessities
For the past half century,
language education and the literary atmosphere in
Taiwanese Society, have all taken the Chinese Literary
Tradition as a core foundation, as well as excerpts of
works of Taiwanese Literature that reflect the realities
of Taiwanese Society. In recent years Taiwanese
Literature is increasingly garnering respect, it has
already become important content for language education,
and native language education, instilling core social
values. This is because, regardless if one is talking
about writers, critics, editors or those who work in
jobs in the media, publishing, literary publications,
cultural centres or libraries, jobs in this sector
require an educational background related to Taiwanese
Literature; being familiar with the results of research
into Taiwanese Literature, has started to be a really
effective advantage. This has led to the founding of the
Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature fit to cope
with the language education and able to act in the
leading light for social culture. Through each period
since the founding of National Taiwan University in the
Japanese Colonial Period, the University has been a
gathering place for talents, a spring of innovative
writing styles. Writers from National Taiwan University
such as Lai He, Yang Yunping, Huang Deshi, Tai Jingnong,
Xi Qinan, Bai Xianyong, Wang Wenxing, Xu Guangzhong and
Li Wenyue are all imposing figures in the literary
forum; From the ranks of the teaching staff and students
of National Taiwan University has arisen publications
such as Literary Review and Modern Literature and the
still active Chungwai Literary Monthly, not only have
these publications encouraged creativity, developing,
promoting and taking an active role in Taiwanese
Literature in an deeply influential way, but they have
also formed a rich record of Taiwanese Literature, and a
bank of resources for research. The teaching staff of
each department of the College of Liberal Arts of
National Taiwan University can also co-operate, to
conglomerate with Taiwanese Literature in related
fields; After this Institute was founded, not only has
Taiwanese Literature, developed on the national and
international academic stage, but also in the training
of those engaging in the teaching of Chinese and Native
Languages, as well as fuelling the entire social arts
scene and cultural development, it must also have a
profound influence and demonstrate its value.
Possible
Orientation for Development
The Masters
Program has already been established for 5 years and the
application for launching a Doctorate Program is
currently under review by the Ministry of Education. The
program will make use of current staff and courses as a
foundation, combining resources from on and off campus,
engaging more guest professors and part-time professors,
as well as hosting a wide range of academic events both
domestically and abroad, using the extended period of
time to deepen and broaden the perspectives of Taiwanese
Literary Research. The possible emphasis for further
development is as follows:
1.
The
Implementation and Development of Research into
Subjectivism and Nativism in
Taiwanese Literature
Within the field
of Taiwanese Literature subjectivism and nativism
have become commonly respected in both academia and
society, but questions still arise as to how to make
this research more expansive and comprehensive in its
focus and direction, raising the bar for quality in the
field. Below are the two main methods to be employed:
The first is to
encourage students to make good use of resources; the
University’s current rich collection is still in need of
many more resources relating to Taiwanese Literature,
especially resources from the Japanese Colonial Period
and Post-war literary works, literary publications, and
even bibliographical data, writers such as Huang Deshi,
Yang Yunping, Bai Xianyong, Wang Wenxing, Yu Guangzhong,
Lin Wenyue contributing to the National Taiwan
University Humanities Library, Literary Review,
Modern Literature, and Chungwai Literary
Review as well as the Libraries of Inou kanoli
（伊能嘉矩）,
Hisabo Tenzui (久保天隋)
and Yang Yunping; This Institute will launch related
courses, to use these as a guide to students in
investigating research methodology in Taiwanese
Literature, and its epistemological structure, to
provide a different perspective, incorporating an
ability to simultaneously to see an overview from the
details, viewed from both the subjectivist and nativist
viewpoints.
The second, is
made up of the research teams formed of professors,
collaborating to combine their skills, working towards a
common goal: this Institute has been active at National
Taiwan University for 5 years, making ends meet with 50
billion NT, since January 2005 all the teaching staff
have jointly been putting together Post-war language
education in Taiwan – taking National Taiwan University
as a focal point and From National Taiwan
University to the Taiwanese Literary Forum, two
research projects, combining National Taiwan
University’s own academic resources, from the
perspective of literary education and literary
epistemology, investigating the process by which
Taiwanese Literature took form and the epistemological
structure that results, trying to bring their
contribution to the enrichment and expansion of
Taiwanese Subjectivism and Nativism. This collaborative
project is still ongoing.
2.
The Practical Yield of
Collaborative Efforts by Staff Traversing Different
Fields of Research
The current
stage of literary research is often seen as contiguous
with cultural research. Therefore, in research and
teaching, the teaching staff of this Institute has
research projects and related courses that bridge
several research fields. For example A Seminar on 20th
Century Literature and Culture and The
Relationship Between Japanese and Chinese during the
Colonial Period in Taiwan both involve professors
working in collaboration with the National Science
Council, thereby essentially driving them to work
simultaneously in two fields, to allow them to reach
well rounded conclusions to their research, which they
can then incorporate into teaching plans, pushing their
students to take up similar challenges. Other courses
like A Selected Reading of Min Dialect Documents,
A Seminar on Taiwanese Literary History, A Seminar on
Contemporary Poetry and Gender Research, Contemporary
Japanese Literature and Taiwan and Taiwanese
Aboriginal Literature and Cultural Icons also
require the breaching of other academic fields of
research.
In the future,
this Institute intends to increase the volume of
collaboration between different research fields, to make
good use of the Research Methodology for Taiwanese
Literature course offered by the Institute, and of
the diverse staff of the Arts, Law and Social Sciences
Colleges, allowing them to open classes at the
Institute, or opening elective courses to include other
Graduate Institutes, pushing students to realize the
mutual influences between Taiwanese Literature, Culture,
History and Society, stimulating their ability to
overcome traditional limits, and to branch into
different fields, and other modes of thought and
research of other cultures, raising the efficacy of
teaching and learning. As well as this, this Institute
will make use of National Taiwan University’s Plan
for Raising Standards of Comprehensive Literary Fields
and unaffiliated resources such as the Jian Jinghui
Humanities Lecture Series and the Bai Xianyong
Literary Lecture Series, along with plans to invite
famous international scholars and experts from various
fields to act as guest professors, in order to set up
courses in Western Literary Theory or Cultural Research
Theory classes; Either holding academic series of
lectures, or research internships, increasing the amount
of Western Literary Theory or Cultural Research Theory
that is touched upon by students; during the time that
the students are undertaking research into the
nativism/subjectivism of Taiwanese Literature,
facilitating them in their dialogue with the global
academic forum, improving the quality of research with
the passing of time.
3.
Perspectives of Taiwanese
Literature Interacting with East Asia and Maintaining
Dialogue with the International Community
Entering the 21st Century, research into
Taiwanese Literature could not remain aloft and isolated
from the world. In fact, looking back on Taiwanese
literature’s birth and development, we can see it as
stemming from the shifting tides of globalization,
especially clear is the mutual influence of East Asia
and Taiwan, as well as Taiwan and the International
Community. Therefore, except for the expansion of
research, our Institute is also pushing towards research
into Interaction with East Asia and Dialogue with the
International Community; in this regard the
Institute has already made strides in this direction
since 2005 achieving positive results. This institute in
co-operation with the Music Department at National
Taiwan University and the Historical Linguistics
Institute at Academia Sinica held a international
conference Cultural Enlightenment and the Production
of Knowledge; In 2006 and 2007 this Institute held a
conference in together with the Chinese Graduate
Institute of Tokyo University, Contemporary
Literature, in 2008 we hosted International
Graduate Student Conference on Currents in East Asian
Literature and Cultural Transmission, amongst those
who attended were included scholars and Graduate
Students from Tokyo University, The University of Hong
Kong and The University of Singapore, this conference
was the realization of
Interaction with East
Asia.
Therefore, this
Institute’s future goals for development, as well as
spurring students to be aware of Nativism and
Subjectivism, is also to direct the eyes of its students
towards the dialectical relationship between Taiwanese
and East Asian Literature as well as that between
Taiwanese and World Literature. Concretely the methods
for this are as follows:
The first, is to
strengthen bibliographic resources: this university
already possesses an abundant collection of Japanese
books, which can be helpful in researching the
relationship between Japan and Taiwan; and post-war
contemporary literature can be seen through its
connection to Literature from Hong Kong, East Asia and
even Europe and America, presently this Institute has
already received the National Science Council's grant
for the 2007 Mainland and Overseas Chinese Literature I:
Contemporary Chinese Language Regional Chinese
Literature Research Library Project as wel as the 2008
Mainland and Overseas Chinese Literature II: Hong Kong,
Macau and the East Asian Region Contemporary Chinese
Literature Research Library Project, the related
resources are very rich and useful for the teaching and
research at this Institute.
The second is to
engage scholars related to this field and to launch
related courses: for example this Institute invited
Professor She Guoqing from the University of California
to lecture on Chinese Language World Literature, and
then from 2008 to 2009 first came Ma Yueran from the
Swedish Academy and following him Guest Professor from
the University of Hong Kong, Professor Li Oufan, who
both gave lectures at the Institute, and in the coming
years will come Professor Ye Weilian from the University
of California at Santiago, and Professor Li Yu from the
University of New York, as well as Professor Shi Shumei
from the University of California at Colombia, to hold
classes and give lectures.
4. Encouraging
International Relations, and Realizing Teaching and
Research Related to Communication with the International
Community
Since the
founding of this Institute, there has been a constant
push for International Academic Relations, not just
through inviting foreign scholars to lecture or act as
guest professors, but also in the process whereby staff
and students form research units and attend research and
educational activities on Taiwanese Literature abroad,
which allows them to explore International Perspectives,
with great passion. In addition to holding regular
International Academic Conferences on campus, and
actively planning trips abroad to engage in academic
activities. The Institute has a cooperative relationship
with Heidelberg University, and SOAS, the three schools
implementing together the Taiwanese Language Education
Cooperative Project.
To take the
above as a base, in the future the concrete aims of the
Institute in terms of International Relations include:
(1)
Using Taiwanese Research Methodology as a basis to
increase the provision of Graduate Diplomas for
International Students developing Degree Methodolgy,
satisfying those students who come to Taiwan to conduct
research;
(2)
On top of the track record of cooperation and
International Relations with Tokyo University,
Heidelberg University, SOAS, the University of Hong
Kong, the University of Singapore, Beijing University,
the University of California, the University of
Washington, and the University of Colombia, to encourage
discourse between staff and students of the different
schools.
(3)
Cooperating with the Office of International Affairs,
and working on existing agreements with sister schools
regarding exchange students and joint recognition, and
at the same time encouraging our own students to study
abroad, and strengthen students' interest in Taiwanese
Literature.
(4)
Instigating joint research projects with prestigious
foreign schools with courses relating to Research of
Taiwan, and using staff and student research units to go
abroad and launch similar classes, to allow students to
learn from each other, and to realize the academic
research and teaching goals of International Discourse. |
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