Abstract
This chapter will explore the various layers Lai Xiangyin (Lai Hsiang-yin 賴香吟) portrays in her collection of short stories entitled The Translator (翻譯者) that maps out several turning points in the post-martial law era. These stories are listed mainly in chronological order and divided into four series, the first dealing with the progression that emerged after martial law was lifted, and the second the frustrations of the reform process. Series three moves away from the democracy movement in Taipei to the perspective of Tainan, an ancient city in south Taiwan. The fourth series offers a metanarrative to Lai’s fictions as well as a historiography of our time. Lai’s texts offer inspiring observations on Taiwan’s democratic movement: the history of the transition from authoritarianism to democracy; the history and internal conflicts of the opposition movement; and how the period looks when viewed from a different geographical vantage point. Most importantly, they show how literature, when done right, preserves time, and how a novelist can come to represent historical “truth.”
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Notes
- 1.
The 228 Incident refers to the February 28 Incident in 1947.
- 2.
According to Hsiao Xinhung’s study, the first peasant movement in 1987 was organized and mobilized by professional fruit farmers before expanding to include professional rice farmers in the years that followed. On the day of May 20, 1988, thousands of farmers gathered at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial to march in protest. Clashes between the police and protestors began in the afternoon and would escalate into street violence. The day saw the arrest of numerous peasant activists, ordinary citizens, homeless people, and university students in what would become known as the “520 Incident.” See Hsin-hung, Hsiao (1991).
- 3.
The Shell-less Snail Movement was a social movement against high housing prices in Taiwan in the late 1980s. To protest rapidly raising housing price, some activists formed the “Housing-less Solidarity Organization” at the end of June 1989 and carried out a series of acts known as the Shell-less Snail Movement. One such act called on the masses to spend the night at Zhongxiao East Road, the home of Taipei’s priciest real estate, on August 26. Shell-less Snail was considered the first social movement to focus on urban issues in Taiwan.
- 4.
From March 16 to March 22, 1990, college students from all over Taiwan gathered at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to launch a series of protests demanding constitutional reform. President Lee Teng-hui met with the student representatives and agreed to the reform demands, followed by direct presidential elections and electoral reforms, which catalyzed Taiwan’s democracy to move towards another stage. This student movement was not only the first large-scale student protest since 1949, but also a landmark that accelerated the speed of Taiwan’s democratic movement. It is generally referred to as the Wild Lily Student Movement or the March Student Movement.
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Fan, Mj. (2023). Democracy Detoured and a Narrator Detached in the Political Fiction of Lai Xiangyin. In: Wu, Cr., Fan, Mj. (eds) Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century. Sinophone and Taiwan Studies, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8380-1_2
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