by Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo credit: Book Cover
A TAIWANESE ECOLITERATURE READER, edited by Ian Rowen, Ti-Han Chang, and Darryl Sterk, proves a useful look at the literary imagination of nature in contemporary Taiwanese literature.
The stories chosen include selections from works already well-known in English, such as Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes, as well as works that are lesser-known in English. The works of Syaman Rapongan, for example, as one of Taiwan’s best-known Indigenous authors, are only starting to be published in English translation.
Many of the stories are set in contemporary times, such as Chiou Charng-ting’s “Raining Zebra Finches” or Wu Ming-yi’s “Cloudland.” Several works center non-human perspectives, such as the selection from Syaman Rapongan’s Eyes of the Sky or Liao Hung-chi’s “Dorado.” Indeed, to this extent, visions of the lost Indigenous past are another thread running through a number of the works, whether through human or non-human perspectives.
Likewise, science fiction works are included in the span of “ecoliterature”, including the selection from Chi’s The Membranes and Lin Hsin-hui’s “Tech Wife.” The inclusion of such works seems warranted, particularly as the science fiction setting of these works is often framed as the fallout of ecological disaster.
A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader allows for an examination into some of the literary trends that define contemporary Taiwan, then. Ecological consciousness clearly looms large. It, too, is easy to see as to why the reckoning with the environment dovetails with the search for identity, as routed through Indigeneity.
As Taiwan proves a society in which the daily presence of nature is still highly visible, even as Taiwan is also a post-industrial and high-tech society, the fact that nature looms large in both stories set in contemporary times and those in an imagined future may not be surprising. The stories are presented with capable and astute translations. Though not always in explicit terms, the stories gesture toward Taiwan as a subject as it emerges in the process of translation.