A Study of Dr. Kano Tadao''s “Mountains, Clouds, Formosan the Aboriginals and myself”

• Main Authors: Jean-Li Kao, 高麗靜
• Other Authors: 吳福助
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/hf9nvk

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 中國文學系所 === 94 === Abstract The mountain areas make up two-thirds of Taiwan. In the Ching Dynasty, the mountain areas had long been the aboriginals’ living places and been considered as the area where the political power could not easily reach to control. After Japan took over Taiwan, the colonial government started to suppress the aboriginals in the mountain areas with the aims to pave roads and to depredate the natural resources. The government took risks to survey the land and the aboriginals’ traditional industry. In addition, many young Japanese scholars risked their life to enter the mountains, considered as barbarians’ residences to conduct researches. Expeditions were done, and some related books were published. By mountaineering, they explored the lands, the water, the animals, the plants, the residents, and their history and culture. Among the books, “Mountains, Clouds, and the Aboriginals” deserves our attention. Published in 1931 and taken as “the highest peak of the Taiwanese mountain literature, the book is the record written by Dr. Kano Tadao during his school days in Taipei Senior High School and Tokyo Empire University; and it was translated and annotated by a professional mountaineer, Yang Nan-Gin, in 2000. The book records the warm relationship between Dr. Kano Tadao and the aboriginals and also includes abundant ecological information of the mountain areas in Taiwan. With Dr. Kano Tadao’s detailed description about his mountaineering, the book is considered to be beautiful, poetic, and vivid. It is a classic of the pre-war mountain literature. The dissertation studies “Mountains, Clouds, Formosan Aboriginals and myself” and has nine chapters: the First Chapter is “Introduction”, the Second is “the Development of the Mountaineering in the Japanese Colonial Period”, the Third is “the Background of the Writing of the Book”, the Fourth is “the Analysis of the Book’s Scientific Data”, the Fifth is “the Analysis of the Literature Techniques”, the Sixth is “the Relationship between Dr. Kano Tadao and the Aboriginals”, the Seventh is “the Analysis of the Concepts of Environmental Protection”, the Eighth is “the Comparison Study of the Book with Other Mountain Literature”, and the Ninth is “Conclusions”. The Appendix includes “Yamasaki’s introduction to Dr. Kano Tadao” and “the Year Chart of the Taiwanese Mountaineering in the Japanese Colonial Period”. With the detailed analysis, the dissertation was accomplished with the aim to signify the value “Mountains, Clouds, and the Aboriginals” in Taiwanese mountain literature. Taiwanese mountain literature is an un-explored field. Dr. Kano Tadao’s “Mountains, Clouds, and the Aboriginals” is an immortal example of this type of literature. It also gives us a good starting point to study mountain literature. “Mountains, Clouds, and the Aboriginals” was discussed in “the Taiwanese Ecological Literature Conference” by Dr. Wu Fu-Ju from Tunghai University. This dissertation was based on the argument made by Dr. Wu and aimed to explore the book in detail and to expound the achievement of the classic. The author accomplishes this dissertation expecting it to be an inspiration to the future researchers of mountain literature and to be a fundamental part to construct “the History of Taiwanese Ecological Literature”. Keywords: Mountain literature, travels, Kano Tadao, Taiwanese ecological literature.