On New Year’s Day, the news was filled with stories of celebrations in cities and counties around the nation. At this time of the year, mass consumption sweeps the world. Although Taiwan’s status as a nation remains undecided, it is going too far in embracing such commercialized and international celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), on its front page reported that writer Huang Chun-ming (黃春明) decided to reopen the Red Brick House cafe in Yilan County after the public, arts and culture workers and the Yilan County Government showed their support. It was a great contrast to the coverage of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, highlighting the difference between superficial pleasures and offering warmth and concern. People intoxicated with the lights and sounds of the celebrations probably still had their heads filled with the previous night’s fireworks when they woke up the next day. They did not know anything about Huang and his cafe, nor did they care.
Early last month, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan city councilor asked the city government who writer Chung Chao-cheng (鍾肇政) was and why the city literary award was named after him, instead of a local celebrity, such as former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄). The city councilor exposed her weakness by showing such ignorance and rudeness.
The Yilan County councilor who cut the subsidy for Huang’s cafe is also a KMT member. It makes it clear that Taiwanese politicians who have a colonized mindset and have become dependents of the colonial system rule are both tragic and laughable. What an embarrassment. In fact, this was not the culture or education of Taiwanese before World War II.
During the Japanese colonial era, the anti-colonial Taiwan Cultural Association (台灣文化協會) launched the New Culture Movement to promote cultural enlightenment as well as the modernization of Taiwan, but many who inherited this spirit were killed in the 228 Incident in 1947. Take Wu, for example: A KMT heavyweight, a Taiwanese, who some say has lost his dignity: His uncle Wu Hung-chi (吳鴻麒) was a man of dignity killed by the KMT.
Taiwanese society values the economy over culture because of the KMT’s long-term post-war rule and people with such characteristics think that the body is more important than the mind, and that material possessions are more important than the spirit. However, economic development has failed to build a welfare society, while the cultural phenomenon of mass consumption is facilitating smoke and fireworks, light and sound.
Who are Huang, Chung and other writers like Yeh Shih-tao (葉石濤), Chen Chien-wu (陳千武), Wu Cho-liu (吳濁流), Chung Li-ho (鍾理和), Yang Kui (楊逵), Lung Ying-tsung (龍瑛宗) and Lai Ho (賴和)? Taiwanese, in general, do not really care, because putting food on the table and making money is more important. Then what? They pay taxes and hope for a peaceful life. However, if you ask young people about actors or singers who are used to being called “stars,” they are familiar with every one of them.
We must save culture, but it is not a matter of charity. Cultural workers must have self-awareness and they should not just sit around and wait for subsidies. After breaking the shackles of the arts and cultural policies created by the party-state, military and vested interests, Taiwan is facing the social phenomenon of mass consumption. Cultural workers must stay alert if they are to be able to engage in genuine dialogue with society.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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