Post-Leftover Citizens’ Discourse on Fathers From Province Other Than Taiwan

• Main Authors: Li-Wen Wu, 吳立文
• Other Authors: 陳器文
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/47075470777005014860

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 中國文學系所 === 95 === Post-Leftover Citizens’ Discourse on Fathers From Province Other Than Taiwan Abstract Recent studies of Taiwan’s literary history have seen a trend of writing on immigration and colonization experiences—not yet a mainstream but doubtlessly a noticeable movement that, with its connotation of self-identity and awareness, is in a sense very distinct from the more comprehensive and general belletristic literature. More distinct are the writers of Chinese mainlanders'' second generation. These well-educated writers, though having never experienced firsthand the fall of a nation but being the second generation immigrants, nevertheless possess a strong and distinctive consciousness characteristic of citizens loyal to the past reign, or leftover citizens, and have constructed a literature that reveals such consciousness. Therefore, in this paper, I refer to these writers as “neo-leftover citizens,” a term defined by scholar Wang De-wei to be distinct from “immigrants” and “colonized people (or colonizees)” in that immigrants leave home country purposefully to seek a new place for living; colonizees are dominated by another nation and no longer in possession of their autonomy in culture and politics; while leftover citizens consciously feel themselves incompatible with the new reign and, with a nostalgia for the previous reign, long to return home. Such terms as "immigrants," "colonists," or "leftover citizens" all indicate a physical and/or psychological deprivation and displacement. Taiwan’s historical breach from China in terms of national identity has, through media and publication, brought about the publicizing, exaggerating, distorting, or even consuming of the pathos of leftover citizens. The consciousness of leftover citizens may appear to scholars of the still rising indigenous discourse to be no more than the remainder of conservatism and nostalgic sentiment. For serious students of Taiwan’s literature and history, however, indispensable in Taiwan''s subjective construction is the study of nostalgia characteristic of leftover citizens and especially of the post-leftover citizens for the past reign and their identity problems resulting from historic issues. The issues of national identity and ethnic consciousness have been made a prominent subject of study by the transfer of power after the 2000 presidential election; and with the probable, if not predictable, transfer of power in 2008, they are going to arouse much attention again, not any less agitating and disturbing than ever. Literary works written by writers of Chinese mainlanders'' second generation, including Zhang Da-chun, Zhu Tian-xin, Cai Kang-yong, Luo Yi-jun, Hao Yu-xiang, and Zhang Hui-cheng, are particularly worth studying in the milieu of a shared eagerness to construct a linear view of literary history with Taiwanese culture as its center. Their works are placed in the ambiguous zone between biology and fiction and stimulate a literary trend of “recalling fathers from mainland China.” Also perceivable is the attempt to shift the focus of attention from national history to familial history. Their discourses explore their cultural origins, reconstruct their self-identity, and present a powerful argument that urges us to think about neo-leftover citizens’ self-awareness in the 21st century, the elements of self-criticism in their works, and the inevitable confusion on the path toward self-reconstruction. In this paper, I examine, analyze, and interpret post-leftover citizens’ personalities, families, histories, sentiments, experiences, and awareness so as to prove their works not merely nostalgic but historically and culturally worth noting. The first chapter of this thesis illustrates the motivation and the scope as well as the methodology of my research. The second chapter focuses on the background and the location of the descendants of "immigrants" "colonists”, by associating the reason of their existence, I organize their family history, personal passion and desire, experience and the realization of their specific roles in the society. Chapter three indicates the reason of quoting their autobiography in this thesis. Chapter four rationalizes the consciousness of their literature and their role in the history. Chapter five demonstrates those literary works is actually a pathway to self-construction instead of grieving. In Chapter six, I conclude that diasporicism is the key to the multi-culture. With the coming of 2007, the misunderstanding caused by the different cultures can never be erased. From the point of supporting individualism, diasporicism seems to expedite the creation of self determination.