CJ Anderson-Wu (吳介禎) is busily engaged in Taiwan’s literary scene, much of the time translating works from English into Chinese. Impossible to Swallow, however, is a collection of her own short stories, advertised as being about the impact of Taiwan’s White Terror on the lives of ordinary people.
The first story, “Judge Not,” is about a group of lawyers working on the political prosecution of a magazine. None of them expresses a particularly strong view, and clearly the prosecution is destined to succeed in precisely the way it was intended to. The journal turns out to be Formosa Magazine, which lay at the center of the famous Formosa Incident, or Kaohsiung Incident, of 1979.
“Blue Eyes” is mostly a dialogue between a mother and her daughter about the daughter’s father, formerly an American serviceman in Taiwan but now out of the picture. The capitulation, as many Taiwanese saw it, of then-US president Jimmy Carter to China in 1979 was the occasion for the departure of US troops from the island.
“First Lady” comes next, and is about the wife of a long-serving Taiwan president on the occasion of his death. Here politics is for the first time in full focus, with contenders for the vacant post easy manipulated by the former first lady.
“Wednesdays” presents the wife of a man who has inexplicably disappeared. On every Wednesday for 17 years she travels to the local detention center in an attempt to discover what has become of him. Eventually one of his former colleagues is released, and says that the man is probably dead. He and several others were detained because they were involved in raising money for a publication in the US advocating Taiwanese democracy.
Next comes “Those Healed and Unhealed,” in which a 90-year-old doctor deals with patients he’s known for half a lifetime, revealing in the process histories of arrest and incarceration on Green Island. It was a time when Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) policy, one character reminisces, was it was better to punish 99 innocent people than let one guilty one escape.
The title story, “Impossible to Swallow,” follows. It’s set in relatively modern times and concerns an American man working in Taiwan and engaged to be married to a Taiwanese woman. During one conversation between the two the woman recalls the days of censorship, when the Taiwanese language was under deep suspicion. Censorship operates together with fear, distrust and hatred, she says, until your life gradually erodes and becomes “impossible to swallow.”
The two work for an airline company in which a strike is planned over working hours. A more humane schedule is eventually introduced, but as a result the company loses much of its value to investors. That’s capitalism, the American thinks.
“Legacy” is unusual in this volume in having a main character who is gay. He’s involved in street protests under the leadership of his professor, who is eventually arrested and tortured to death. The professor’s mother is a convinced radical and supports the protesters by cooking and selling Korean food under the name “Democratic Kimchi.”
“Others’ Guilt” happens to include an aboriginal character but this isn’t at the heart of the story. It’s about a young boy who acts as a courier, taking food to a man who has fled his home to live in the woods after being accused of being a communist. The people who prepare the food also make a false certificate of identification for the fugitive.
Twenty years later the young boy, now adult and living in Taipei, is accused of murder, while the former fugitive is a senior figure in the prosecutor’s office. It’s possible he could save the accused’s life but he doesn’t, and the man, who was once responsible for saving him, is executed.
The last story, “A Letter from Father,” is extremely short. It simply consists of a letter from an imprisoned father to his daughter. He compares her and her mother to the trees he can see out of his dormitory window, and hopes they will flourish and his daughter grow up straight and strong.
The date is given as March 28, 1982, and an appended note states that it was “inspired by a letter of Tsai Yi-Cheng, who had been incarcerated for 24 years, because of his involvement with underground political activities.”
These stories certainly demonstrate the range of those who suffered under Taiwan’s White Terror, the harsh targeting of perceived political dissidents usually dated as lasting from 1947 to 1987. They also show how different people were affected in different ways, some directly by imprisonment and not infrequently death, others by being their relatives, others involved towards the end of the period in protests that led to less traumatic results.
What characterizes these tales is the absence of scenes of violence. There is none of the brutal assault, including murder and torture, that the White Terror regime was responsible for. Instead, we see the effects of such horrors on other people, with the implication that the atmosphere of repression was pervasive and left few Taiwanese citizens untouched.
Assuming that this was the author’s intention, then the perspective is finely managed, and the comprehensive point well made. And the inclusion of minorities — an Aborigine, a gay and a foreigner — certainly emphasizes the book’s range.
I enjoyed these stories. They may not be great masterpieces, but they have variety and an underlying seriousness of purpose, both features of the best fiction.
Serenity International is a publisher of Taiwanese and other literature, with offices in Taipei and a business registration in Nipomo, California.
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
RSS