Taiwan nativist literature (). Xiangtu (鄉土), literally meaning the hometown soil, symbolizes nativism; and Wenxue (文學) is literature. It is a genre of Taiwanese literature derived from the New Literature Movement (台灣新文學運動) under the Japanese rule in the 1920s. The movement died down after 1937 when the Japanese government strengthened its colonial policy, but regained public attention in the 1970s. Taiwan nativist literature uses literary realism as its main narrative to depict people, events and subjects that happen in Taiwan, aiming at reflecting the particularity of the local society. The nativist novels usually depict the struggles for existence and predicaments of identity of the Taiwanese people with a humanistic tone. They tend to base on the life experiences of their authors, and reflect their worldviews.
The Taiwan New Literature movement
Under the colonial modernization in Taiwan, through colonial education, study in Japan and mainland China, Taiwan’s first generation intellectuals were informed of modern politics, society, culture and ideas of the West. They embraced concepts such as national self-determination, democracy, freedom, and socialism. They were also inspired by various events such as the Taishō Democracy Movement, socialist movement and leftist movement in Japan, and the May Fourth Movement, the New Culture Movement, and anti-imperialism movement in China. Since the 1920s, Taiwanese intellectuals had moved away from violent resistance into organized and non-violent, cultural, political and social struggles against the Japanese government.
In 1920, Cai Huiru (蔡惠如) et al. founded the Xin Min Society (新民会) in Tokyo in January and published Taiwan Youth (《台湾青年》) magazine in July, in order to promote cultural enlightenment (文化启蒙). In response, Jiang Weishui/Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) et al. founded the Taiwan Culture Association (台湾文化协会) in Taiwan in 1921, which was the prelude of the anti-colonial and national emancipatory movements there. The Association shared the same anti-imperialist spirit with the May Fourth Movement in China. The literature movement was brought into Taiwan as a tool to exercise cultural enlightenment, increase education standards and to awaken the public to stand up against the colonial authority.
The Taiwan New Literature movement incorporated the May Fourth Literature model, engaging with language reform and literary realism. First, it tried to synchronize speaking with writing (言文合一) by promoting the use of modern Chinese (白話文) as opposed to classical Chinese (文言文). The use of modern Chinese could help increase the general literacy and keep connection with mainland China, and it symbolized the erection of the New and the abandon of the Old. Zhang Wojun (張我軍) was one of the main advocates who positioned Taiwan literature as a branch of Chinese literature, tried to bring in more Chinese elements into Taiwan literature, and wanted to use modern Chinese to reform the Taiwanese vernacular. Second, as being positioned as a branch of Chinese literature, the Movement aimed at liberating Taiwan from Japanese colonizers with an intention to return to China. It followed the anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist realistic style of the May Fourth literature. Here, the use of modern Chinese against the then official language of Taiwan—Japanese also played an important role to support the advocates’ Chinese identity.