Taiwan Fiction and Postwar Urban Experience Week 16

Taiwan Fiction and Postwar Urban Experience Week 16: Thematic Explorations: The City and Military Family Compounds [Dec 26 th, 2013] Instructor: Richard Rong-bin Chen, Ph. D. Adjunct Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, NTU Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non. Commercial-Share. Alike 3. 0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC-SA 3. 0)

The Works • “The Vanishing Ball” by Chang Chi-jiang (1991) “In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound” by Chu Tienhsin (1992) • “Alley 116, Liaoning Street” by Chang Ta -chun (1991)

Background of the Works • “The modernist literature that arose in the 1960 s uprooted and replaced nostalgic anti-Communist literature. However, no literary trend can be suddenly terminated. In the 1980 s, a group of second-generation writers who had grown up in military dependents’ compounds … began to write about their unique experiences and their critical views. ” (p. 18 -19) Source: Pang-yuan Chi. (2000). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), Chinese literature in the second half of a modern century : a critical survey. Bloomington : Indiana University Press • (Quoted from Chi Pang-yuan [齊邦媛 ], “Taiwan Literature, 1945 -1999, ” an essay collected in Chinese Literature in the Second Half of a Modern Century)

History • The name of this specific type of community is chuan ts’un [眷村 ] in Chinese—literally, dependents’ village. • During the 1949 Great Retreat of KMT government from the Mainland, more than one million people immigrate to Taiwan. (600000 people were military personnel and their families. ) • It was once estimated, about 879 military family compounds have been built, and they took in more than 460000 mainlanders with military backgrounds.

• Issues: • At certain point only a temporary residence, until one day they knew it for sure it would no longer be possible to “fight back to the Mainland”. • Isolated from Taiwan’s society as a whole. • (Both socio-political and spatio-temporal isolation. ) • Trapped in the village, as well as in the past. • Lack of social competitiveness (? ) • Pro-KMT attitude (? ) • Reflecting upon how KMT treated the Mainlanders in Taiwan. • Forming a specific culture. (Example: unique culinary culture. )

“In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound” by Chu Tien-hsin Source: David Der-Wei Wang (2007). Carlos Rojas (Eds. ), Writing Taiwan: A New Literary History. United States of America: Duke University Press She runs to the front gate of the compound. It is a sunny Saturday afternoon, and at the riverbank, ten to twenty boys, ranging from first graders to those who have reached the conscription age, have converged like a flock of birds. At the entrance of the compound, between two tall stone poles (nobody knows their exact function), hangs a red banner, with the words NUMBER X CANDIDATE XXX HAS THE FULL SUPPORT OF THIS COMPOUND.

“The Vanishing Ball” by Chang Chi-jiang (1991) • Chang Chi-jiang [張啟疆] (1961 -) • His father a native of An-hui [安徽] Province. • Graduated from Department of Business Administration, NTU. • Winner of many literary prizes, which includes those offered by China Times and United Daily News. • Famous for his writing of urban fiction and works with themes of baseball and military family compound. This work is licensed by 文訊雜誌社 for the use of “Course Database of General Education TW” ONLY. The copyright belongs to the above mentioned creator and we do not have the authorization right. http: //www. tpocl. com/conte nt/writer. Album. aspx? n=G 010 0

The Timeline in the Story • The Past [The baseball game] • C. K. S. died on “Tomb-sweeping Day” [清明節] in April, 1975. • Grandpa: it’s all over, Chiang Junior could not be counted on, and the dream of fighting back to the mainland vaporized. The military family village would soon be ripped off, how could they afford to buy a home for themselves? • Father: we could count on Chiang Junior, and the party would surely took care of us. • Son: big deal? The game tomorrow would be more important.

• The Past Present [Things happened in the office] • The narrator’s father died in 1986, so did Chiang Junior the next year. • The father was able to secure for him a job in a semiofficial trade company using what’s left in his limited party connections. • 1991. (The narrator had been in the company for four years. ) • Three months earlier, the narrator got to know that Chen Guo-xiong had become a NTU graduate. • The narrator chose to resign, which can only be considered properly on a more symbolic level.

Values of the Older Generation Mainlanders The father talked about “Twelve Guidelines for Youth, ” “Counterattack and save Great China, ” “study hard and go to the United States. ” (p. 219) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press Only studying hard and getting a secured job is the thing to do: “Baseball! Baseball, my boy, is a game for rotten, uncivilized Taiwanese kids. Why do you mess around with them? It only pays off if you can make the national team. You were just a kid when you lost your mother. Last year your grandpa died. Someday I’ll be gone, too, and then what will you do? You better set your mind right now on studying hard so you can get some kind of government job. Then maybe someday President Chiang will want to see you. ”(p. 220) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

The Contrast • TKs [台客] of the West Bing Gang [西松] • Main character: Chen Guoxiong. • Graduated from NTU, father was the owner of a land ten times bigger than the narrator’s military family compound. • Used to be nicknamed Shorty, but now half a head taller than the narrator. • Now the section head of the Development Department in the “semiofficial trade firm. ” • Not a KMT member, considered to be unqualified, but in fact he was quite competent. • Considered the narrator to be his friend.

• Fu Lian New Village [婦聯新村] • Fu Lian means 婦聯會, National Women’s League, an association used to be headed by Madame C. K. S. • The narrator • Failed the entrance exam. • Couldn’t get a decent job, and had to rent a place to live because the village had been demolished. • Worked in the trade firm for four years, a guy worked as little as possible, lived like a slob, and tried to forget about himself. • Decided to resign at the end.

Other Characters (baseball teammates) from the Village • The destinies of the characters reflect both a specific culture and Taiwan’s economic boom. • Cannon: went to a noncommissioned officers military academy, later executed for deserting after stealing a gun. • Tiger: used to be in jail. • Little Luo: prospered in the real estate market. • Tony and Stinking Asshole: led by Little Luo, started their business in stock market.

The Narrator Gave His Reasons for Quitting • Quitting the job is saying goodbye to the past. • The narrator wrote the following paragraph in his letter of resignation: • The reason I choose to disappear is that I am confused— why couldn’t that game simply be a game? Why did that fastball vanish? Maybe my answer lies in the fights we lost before ending up here in Taiwan in 1949, the Sipingjie Street Battle [四平街之役], the incident of 500 martyrs in Taiyuan [太原五百完人], or the ordeal at Xubang Battle [ 徐蚌會戰]. My life has been filled with cries of “Long live President Chiang. ” I was brought up on the injunction, “Kill Zhu De and weed out Mao, ” entirely unrelated to me and yet informing my childhood, these stories about Chinese killing Chinese. (p. 236) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora.

An alternative way to make a living, a way to integrate with the Taiwanese: Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

“In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound” by Chu Tien-hsin The anti-war song uses “flowers” to imply the soldiers in the Vietnamese War, but Chu used it to imply the boys from the military compound. I hear of someone wanting to publish an ad in the paper to seek out her childhood companions or to form a “military compound gang, ” because she does not want to admit that the only “buddies” she had are those whose names constantly appear in the criminal reports in the papers. (p. 261) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

She could recognize them at a glance, even though the papers scarcely revealed any personal information about them (such as so and so Taisheng, of Shandong descent, residing in Zuoying, Gaoxiong, or Gangshan, or Jiayi City, or Puxin, Yangmei, or Nanshijiao, Zhonghe City, or Liuchangli, Nanjichang… the military compounds from south to north, and east to west). You also dread coming across taxi drivers who speak with a heavy mainland accent, and who start to curse the Guomindang and Democratic Progressive Party as soon as the traffic comes to a halt. (p. 261 -262) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

You look at the strands of white hair on the back of the driver’s head, and you can immediately conclude that he belongs to the group of soldiers who, straight out of military school, proudly chose to serve the country, but who had no means of joining the job market after retirement in their thirties or forties. . Otherwise, brothers from the military compound, where have you gone? (p. 262) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

Implication of the Last Scene • After Chen hit the walk-off homer, the two teams started a fight. • The narrator chased Chen, and tried to beat him up. • Chen’s following sentences imply the complex political situation of Taiwan in the early 90 s. We see an intensified ethnic relationship between mainlanders and Taiwanese back then. • In this sense, “The Vanishing Ball” is not only a personal story, but also a national allegory. • “Get lost! You can’t beat me on my family’s land!” (p. 241)Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press • “Mainlanders go home! All of you!” (p. 241) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

The Mainlanders Felt Threatened Politically • According to the senior colleague of the narrator from Shandong Province: • “That March power struggle, damn it, it was all planned. After Lee Teng-hui, it would be Lin Yang-kang. The second son of the Chiang family [General Chiang Wei-kuo, the younger brother of Chiang Junior] would never become the president of ‘the Republic of Taiwan. ’ And this is called localization, do you hear me, boy? Localization. It’s all over, even if your name is Chiang. ” (p. 231) Source: Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press

• “Alley 116, Liaoning Street” by Chang Ta-chun (1991) • The residents of the military family compound had always wanted to move into a more spacious apartment, but, when they did, they became quite nostalgic. • The military family compound was demolished and people relocated, and this is a part of Taipei’s process of commercialization. • Different types of residents—the differences between the army and air force families.

This work is from “Google map”(https: //maps. google. com. tw/) and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan Copyright Act Article 52 and 65 by GET

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

Showing a Specific Lifestyle It came as quite a relief for the Air Force dependents when the residents of New Fuhua district moved. Now they could see Nanking East Road which had previously been blocked by four rows of Japanese-style houses. They no longer had to worry about all the noise, the mahjong games, the arguing, the cursing, and the playing which went on day and night making it difficult for their children to study for the school entrance exams. (p. 53) Source: Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen. Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N What they called Old New Fuhua District did not refer to the New Fuhua District which had been constructed in 1961. By the time the sign was put up, they had already said goodbye to their old military dependents’ quarter. (p. 54) Source: Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen. Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

The Commercialization of Taipei At the time we were all angry about one thing: on one part of Old New Fuhua District, China Airlines had built a large office building, and the value of the property had soared. The empty lots were so expensive, nobody could afford them. In the rubble, our common army childhood was buried. This was unbearable because we never imagined that our little kingdom sat on the most expensive piece of land in Taipei. (p. 56) Source: Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen. Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N

The Influence of American Culture Most of the Army kids my age agree that our desire to move to the spacious new apartments was influenced by American movies of the 1 960 s We didn’t have a TV, but through a crack in the bamboo fence I could hear the Air Force kids talk about the characters in “ I Love Lucy” who lived in apartment buildings. When a brick wall replaced the bamboo fence, We Army kids spent a lot of time in the ice-cream and fruit shop at the mouth of the alley watching Simon Templer, “the Saint” coming in and out of high-rise apartment. (p. 58) Source: Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen. Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N

Copyright Declaration Licensing Author/Source Page Work 3 The modernist literature that arose …experiences and their critical views. Pang-yuan Chi. (2000). Taiwan Literature, 1945 -1999 Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) Chinese literature in the second half of a modern century : a critical survey. (pp. 18 -19). Bloomington : Indiana University Press 6 In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound David Der-Wei Wang (2007). Carlos Rojas (Eds. ), Writing Taiwan: A New Literary History. United States of America: Duke University Press This work is licensed by 文訊雜誌社 for the use of “Course Database of General Education TW” ONLY. The copyright belongs to the above mentioned creator and we do not have the authorization right. 7 10 The father talked about “Twelve …hard and go to the United States. ” Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 219). New York : Columbia University Press 10 “Baseball! Baseball, my boy, is a … Chiang will want to see you. ” Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 220). New York : Columbia University Press 14 The reason I choose to disappear is … Chinese killing Chinese. Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 236). New York : Columbia University Press

Copyright Declaration Page Work Licensing Author/Source Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 238). New York : Columbia University Press 15 16 The anti-war song uses “flowers”… the criminal reports in the papers. Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 261). New York : Columbia University Press 17 She could recognize them at a glance…and Democratic Progressive Party as soon as the traffic comes to a halt Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ), The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. New York : Columbia University Press 18 You look at the strands of white hair …compound, where have you gone? Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (pp. 261 -2). New York : Columbia University Press 19 “Get lost! You can’t beat me on my family’s land!” Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 241). New York : Columbia University Press 19 “Mainlanders go home! All of you!” Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 241). New York : Columbia University Press

Copyright Declaration Page 20 Work That March power struggle, …even if your name is Chiang. Licensing Author/Source Chang Chi-jiang. (2003). The Vanishing Ball Pang-yuan Chi and David Der-wei Wang(Eds. ) The Last of the Whampoa breed : stories of Chinese diaspora. (p. 231). New York : Columbia University Press 22 This work is from “Google map”(https: //maps. google. com. tw/) and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan Copyright Act Article 52 and 65 by GET 23 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen 24 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen 25 It came as quite a relief for the Air …for the school entrance exams. Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Alley 116, Liaoning Street Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen, (p. 53). Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N 25 What they called Old New … old military dependents’ quarter. Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Alley 116, Liaoning Street Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen, (p. 54). Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N

Copyright Declaration Page Work 26 Licensing Author/Source National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen 27 At the time we were all angry about one … piece of land in Taipei. Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Alley 116, Liaoning Street Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen, (p. 56). Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N 28 Most of the Army kids my age …coming in and out of high-rise apartment. Chang Ta-chun. (1992, winter ). Alley 116, Liaoning Street Hwang Yingtsih (Trans. ), Chinese pen, (p. 58). Taipei, Taiwan : Taipei Chinese Center, International P. E. N