The Development of Taiwan’s Regional Literary Histories Since the Late Twentieth Century and the Perspective of Glocalization

Tóm tắt

    The development of Taiwanese literature can be traced from classical literature during the Qing period, through the coexistence of traditional and modern literary forms under Japanese colonial rule, and the emergence of discourses concerning the localization of Taiwanese literature. After the turbulence of the postwar period and the literary oscillations that continued until the lifting of martial law, Taiwanese literature gradually found its bearings and entered, by the 1990s, an era characterized by “diversity, convergence, and polyphony.” Entering the twenty-first century, the development of regional literatures that emerged alongside the growth of local consciousness began to take root with Wenhsun magazine’s six “Regional Literary Conferences in Taiwan” held in 1993 in Hualien and Taitung, Yunlin–Chiayi–Tainan, Taichung–Changhua–Nantou, Taoyuan–Hsinchu–Miaoli, and Taipei–Keelung–Yilan, followed by the publication of conference volumes. Subsequently, regional literary histories were published for eleven countries and cities, including The History of Literary Development in Taichung County (1995), The History of Literary Development in Changhua County (1997), The Literary History of Taichung (2015), and The Literary History of Pingtung (2023). Nevertheless, not every region has received a comprehensive historical investigation and literary-historical reconstruction. This uneven development reveals both the trajectories and problems inherent in the formation of Taiwan’s regional literary histories.

    This article therefore examines the development of Taiwan’s regional literary histories since the late twentieth century, focusing on their characteristics of locality, multiethnicity, multilingualism, popular and vernacular dimensions, and literary landscapes. It further adopts “glocalization” as a theoretical perspective to reconsider the relationship between the local and the global not as a binary opposition but as a mutually constitutive cultural relationship. Accordingly, twenty-first-century regional literary histories in Taiwan should begin with sustained engagement with local communities while developing comparative perspectives across regions, ethnic groups, islands, and overseas Sinophone literatures. Only through this approach can regional literary history move beyond preserving local culture and become an important methodology for reconstructing the history of Taiwanese literature, while also initiating dialogue with overseas Sinophone literature, maritime cultures, and Southern knowledge systems.