Vignettes Of Taiwan Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Vignettes Of Taiwan book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
When Joshua Samuel Brown first stepped out of the passenger terminal at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, he was a stranger in a humid land with insufficient funds, zero job prospects and an over-packed suitcase. Like much else in his life up to that point, his decision to move to Taiwan was based largely on random occurrence and cosmic coincidence. He was twenty-four years old, thousands of miles away from home, and at that moment the happiest man alive. This anthology of short stories, travel essays, photographs, random meditations, and political meanderings grew out of his years on the island formerly known as Formosa.
Though he lived mostly in rural South Taiwan, Zhong Lihe (1915–1960) spent several years in Manchuria and Peking, moving among an eclectic mix of ethnicities, classes, and cultures. His fictional portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of Zhong Lihe’s native Hakka districts. His scenic descriptions are deft and atmospheric, and his psychological explorations are acute. The first anthology to present his work in English, this volume features two novellas, ten short stories, and four short prose works.
A gripping, vital account of one man's imprisonment by Taiwan's police state early in the Cold War. In 1954 Tehpen Tsai was arrested by the Kuomintang regime on suspicion of being a Chinese communist agent. After initial weeks-long interrogation near his home he was transferred to a detention facility in Taipei specifically for seditionists and enemy operatives. The evidence against him: two books, one on his shelves at home, and one that another arrestee told police he had seen at Tsai's house. Tsai was not a communist. But in the febrile atmosphere of the early White Terror era in Taiwan that scarcely mattered; the secret police were commonly thought to operate by a rule to "never miss one true criminal, even if a hundred are killed mistakenly." He had just one thing counting in his favour: he had recently returned from a scholarship in the USA, and the Chiang Kai-shek government at the time was sensitive to American attitudes and pressure. In prison he met genuine communists, anti-government activists, intellectuals, and others like him, unlucky people swept up by a tenuous accusation or a chance encounter. One by one his cellmates disappeared, some to the execution grounds, others to Green Island, the notorious political prison off Taiwan's east coast. Tsai was more fortunate. Sentenced to a term of "re-education", he was released in November 1955. Elegy of Sweet Potatoes is a thinly-fictionalized version of Tsai Tehpen's experiences as a political prisoner. Names are changed, dates are fudged, but the narrative here is true to life. A compelling story full of rich description, pathos, and odd moments of humor, it is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the realities of martial law in "Free China".
Author : Joseph S. M. Lau Publisher : Columbia University Press Page : 396 pages File Size : 55,7 Mb Release : 1976-06-22 Category : Literary Criticism ISBN : 0231513860
A Son of Taiwan by Howard Goldblatt,Sylvia Li-chun Lin Pdf
"On February 28, 1947, a widow selling cigarettes on the street in Taipei was brutally beaten by government agents searching for contraband cigarettes. When a crowd gathered, shots were fired and a bystander was killed. Island-wide demonstrations prompted the Chiang Kai-shek government to send reinforcements from China. Upon arrival, the troops opened fire, killing thousands. The massacre was followed by large-scale arrests of anyone suspected of sedition or Communist associations, all in the name of national security. Martial law was declared and not lifted until 1987. What happened in 1947 is known as the 2/28 Incident, which led to a four-decade-long suppression of dissent, encroachments upon civil liberties, and the wholesale violation of human rights, all subsumed under an era referred to as White Terror. Its pernicious effects went beyond actual acts of atrocity, as the citizens practiced self-censorship and passed their fears on to the next generation. For many years, this part of Taiwan's past was talked about, if at all, with circumspection. As evidenced in this collection, literary representations often employed obscure references, which themselves could place the writers in serious jeopardy. Despite, or because of, differences in approach, these writers keep memories alive to ensure that the past is neither forgotten nor repeated. This book is part of the Literature from Taiwan Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and National Taiwan Normal University"--
Transitions in Taiwan by Ian Rowen (Translator) Pdf
"Taiwan's peaceful and democratic society is built upon on decades of authoritarian state violence that it is still coming to terms with. Following 50 years of Japanese colonization, Taiwan was occupied by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at the close of World War II in 1945. The party massacred thousands of Taiwanese while it established a military dictatorship on the island with the tacit support of the United States. Although early episodes of state violence (such as the 228 Incident in 1947) and post-1980s democratization in Taiwan have received a significant amount of literary and scholarly attention, relatively less has been written or translated about the White Terror and martial law period, which began in 1949. The White Terror was aimed at alleged proponents of Taiwanese independence as well as supposed communist collaborators wiped out an entire generation of intellectuals. Both native-born Taiwanese as well as mainland Chinese exiles were subject to imprisonment, torture, and execution. During this time, the KMT institutionally favored mainland Chinese over native-born Taiwanese and reserved most military, educational, and police positions for the former. Taiwanese were forcibly "re-educated" as Chinese subjects. China-centric national history curricula, forced Mandarin-language pedagogy and media, and the re-naming of streets and public spaces after places in China further enforced a representational regime of Chineseness to legitimize the authority of the KMT, which did not lift martial law until 1987. Taiwan's contemporary commitment to transitional justice and democracy hinges on this history of violence, for which this volume provides a literary treatment as essential as it is varied. This is among the first collection of stories to comprehensively address the social, political, and economic aspects of White Terror, and to do so with deep attention to their transnational character. Featuring contributions from many of Taiwan's most celebrated authors, and written in genres that range between realism, satire, and allegory, it examines the modes and mechanisms of the White Terror and party-state exploitation in prisons, farming villages, slums, military bases, and professional communities. Transitions in Taiwan: Stories of the White Terror is an important book for Taiwan studies, Asian Studies, literature, and social justice collections. This book is part of the Literature from Taiwan Series, in collaboration with the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and National Taiwan Normal University"--
This anthology presents seventy translated and annotated short essays, or hsiao-p’in, by fourteen well-known sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese writers. Hsiao-p’in, characterized by spontaneity and brevity, were a relatively informal variation on the established classical prose style in which all scholars were trained. Written primarily to amuse and entertain the reader, hsiao-p’in reflect the rise of individualism in the late Ming period and collectively provide a panorama of the colorful life of the age. Critics condemned the genre as escapist because of its focus on life’s sensual pleasures and triviality, and over the next two centuries many of these playful and often irreverent works were officially censored. Today, the essays provide valuable and rare accounts of the details over everyday life in Ming China as well as displays of wit and delightful turns of phrase.
Unsinkable by Walis Nokan,Gan Yao-Ming,Lin Chun-Ying Pdf
The tumultuous recent history of Taiwan surprisingly gave the islands unusually diverse cultures. People immigrated to Taiwan for all kinds of reasons, from missionaries sent to pass on their gospels, businessmen developing new markets, workers seeking bigger money, to refugees running from wars or dissidents looking for asylum. Thus memories of the lost past are a motif of Taiwanese literature and a powerful approach for writers to deal with issues inconvenient to confront face to face. These issues include regime transfer, political oppression, faiths, sexuality, family values, urbanization, fantasies, misunderstanding, cultural clashes and discrimination. Colonialism and poverty are still living experiences and simultaneously memories to many Taiwanese. In literary works, the (dis)continuation of tradition and values are the ever present focus. In these four stories, the authors have successfully woven layers of messages through intriguing plots, characters and metaphors. With extraordinary artistry, they (re)present elaborate human natures. These are the stories of ordinary people who refuse to succumb to hardship or inequality. They are unsinkable Taiwanese.
Insight Guides City Guide Taipei by Insight Guides Pdf
Taiwanese culture preserves the best of ancient traditions, while embracing the newest in high-tech modernity, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in the country's dynamic capital, Taipei. Whether you want to admire Taipei 101's architecture, discover precious Chinese artefacts at the National Palace Museum or indulge in feast of street food at Shilin Nightmarket, Insight City Guide Taipei will ensure that you have the quintessential Taipei experience. Features by local writers delve into topics including the arts scene, Taipei residents' love of sports and shopping, and traditional remedies, while evocative accounts of the city's districts bring Taipei to life, from Ximending's youth culture and Datong's Chinese heritage to the east's skyscrapers juxtaposed with hillside tea plantations. Full-colour photography and maps help you navigate with ease and our detailed Travel Tips give you all the practical information you need to plan your trip. Discover this fascinating city with Insight City Guide Taipei.
Running Mother and Other Stories by Songfen Guo Pdf
Guo Songfen's short stories are masterful psychological portraits that play with the echoes of history and the nature of identity. One of the few modernists to truly capture the fallout from such events as the February 28th Incident and the White Terror, Guo Songfen illuminates the quiet core of his characters through a spare and immediate style that is at once a symptom and an allegory of the trauma in which they live. In "Running Mother," a man is torn between his fear of abandonment and his guilt over leaving his family, and therefore his symbolic home, behind. "Moon Seal" follows a woman caught between traditional and modern worlds. In "Wailing Moon," a wife learns a shocking secret after her husband's death, realizing he was never the man she thought him to be. Set in the United States and Taiwan, "Snow Blind" is a multigenerational triptych that portrays the consequences of spiritual malaise, and in "Brightly Shines the Stars Tonight," a general wrestles with issues of memory and self-perception in the final moments before his execution. Guo Songfen's stories play with the hazards of miscommunication, the malevolence of human will, the arbitrary nature of fate, and the burden of historical circumstance. As the general discovers, life is a game of chess, the outcome of which is never certain though it might be logically designed. Showcasing the best of Taiwan's modernist style, these stories are not only an indictment of the human condition but also a powerful comment on the experience of postretrocession Taiwan.
Positioning Taiwan in a Global Context by Bi-yu Chang,Pei-yin Lin Pdf
Positioning Taiwan in a Global Context examines modern Taiwanese culture through the prism of global cultural interactions. Challenging the view of Taiwan as a product of transience and displacement, it highlights Taiwan’s subjectivity, viewing the island as a site of a global development that epitomizes both resistance and negotiation in the process of cultural flows. The fourteen contributions by an international team of scholars investigate the multi-layered and multidirectional interplays between the island and the outside world, exploring the impact of complex cultural encounters on the construction, writing and rewriting of Taiwan in a global context. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the topics covered range from Taiwanese literature, cinema, food culture and tourism to cultural geography, colonial history, and folk religion, with comparisons made with Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the West. Focusing on continuous cross-cultural interplays, this book affords readers a deeper understanding of identity politics and a better insight into the fluidity, changeability, and constructionist nature of culture. As such, it will be will be of great interest to students and scholars of Taiwan Studies and Cultural Studies, as well as Asian film, literature and popular culture.
Women Migrants in Southern China and Taiwan by Beatrice Zani Pdf
This book, based on extensive original research, explores the lives, the migratory experiences and the social, economic, and emotional practices of Chinese migrant women during their migrations and mobilities in China, from China to Taiwan, from Taiwan to China and in between the two countries. It illustrates how women on the move experience social contempt, misrecognition and economic marginalisation; how women migrants seek autonomy, economic independence, upward social mobility and modernity, but discover the Chinese inegalitarian social order and labour regimes which produce obstacles and impede their ambitions; and how old and new forms of subalternity are reproduced. Overall, the book emphasises what it feels like for the women migrants as they negotiate their way at the crossroad between subalternity and resistance, between subordinated labour and independent, digital entrepreneurship, and between an inegalitarian labour market and new, online opportunities for business and commerce.
Formosa Moon by Joshua Samuel Brown,Stephanie Huffman Pdf
"Stephanie, if we're going to get serious I should tell you that Taiwan will always be the other woman." "You mean I have to share you with 23 million other people?" Stephanie has never been to Asia; Portland, Oregon seems to be a metropolis to this small-town girl. Josh has spent years living in Taiwan and plans to make that country his home once again. Several years later, they've packed a few essentials, given away everything else and are on a flight to Taipei. From five-star luxury to a hostel on an island that was once a penal colony, from the chaotic excitement of urban night markets to an isolated mountain village, Josh shows Stephanie the country that has claimed him. Hoping she'll fall in love with Taiwan and choose to live there with him, he's even chosen the place where he plans to propose to her. And then they visit a fortune-teller. Stephanie, plunged into a whirlwind exploration of Taiwan before she's even recovered from jet lag, is an artist faced with a nonstop barrage of sensory overload. She doesn't speak Chinese, she's on a gluten-free diet, and she's firmly rooted in Josh's itinerary, where there's no room for sitting still. Luckily she's a woman with a taste for adventure. Formosa Moon sets the bar for a whole new form of travel writing. Written in two voices, it gives the vivid impressions of a first-time Asia traveler and the deep-rooted knowledge of a man who is returning home. Stephanie's excitement, confusion, and delight combine with Josh's irreverent humor and carefully researched facts to create a travel memoir/travel guide that's cloaked in a quest for home. Josh has already found his but he knows Stephanie needs to find hers in her own way. And then there's that fortune-teller...
