Prior to the second Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit — which began on Wednesday last week — Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long used such activities to package the promotion of its “united front” propaganda tactics. According to the MAC, the two summits were “held under the pretext of cultural and media exchanges to summon Taiwanese media and cultural figures to Beijing to lecture and instruct them.”
The MAC specifically named Want Want China Times Media Group as playing the role of the CCP’s “united front” pawn. Under the organization and mobilization of the group’s newspaper supplements, more than 10 Taiwanese writers attended a literary forum at the summit. Additionally, seven other Taiwanese writers donated manuscripts to the National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature in Beijing.
On the first day of the summit, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) delivered the opening remarks. The China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the China Writers Association — the summit’s organizers — are government organizations tasked with taming and controlling writers. The National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, which received the writers’ donations, is listed as a “key national cultural institution.”
This event was orchestrated by the CCP and other government agencies from start to finish. It was just another part of the CCP’s large-scale “united front” campaign, disguised as a cultural exchange event — we cannot excuse such activities with the weak argument that “culture is culture, politics is politics.” Acts such as donating manuscripts in exchange for official collection certificates from CCP authorities are tantamount to Taiwanese writers waving a white flag in surrender.
While simultaneously facing similar threats from hostile foreign forces, Ukrainian writers living amid the horrors of war have used a completely different approach to demonstrate their courage and literary strength of character.
In June last year, Ukrainian poet and novelist Serhiy Zhadan put down his pen and took up arms. Zhadan, 50, is a recipient of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association’s Peace Prize — the highest honor in German publishing — and is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Ukrainian authors. His works have been translated into many languages, including German, English, Russian and Polish. For the past year, he has been a member of the 13th “Khartiia” Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, where he has helped the brigade to actively engage domestic and international social media platforms.
Another internationally renowned Ukrainian author, Oksana Zabuzhko, has been tirelessly speaking up for Ukrainian citizens on the international stage. In February last year, she served as a member of the International Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival. She also made history for International Women’s Day in 2022 by becoming the first female civilian from a non-EU member state to address the European Parliament.
In September last year, the Venice Film Festival screened Russians at War, a war documentary filmed from the perspective of Russian soldiers. In a recent interview with the Kyiv Independent, Zabuzhko exposed the film as a Russian propaganda tool, posing the question: “Do you really think a filmmaker with a camera would be allowed to move freely among Russian soldiers without permission from someone higher up?”
As war batters Ukraine’s doorstep, Zabuzhko — who has said she never once aspired to be a diplomat — has taken a stand to ensure that Ukrainian culture could break free from the thick shadow of Russian cultural hegemony.
When asked by her agent if she would consider a public dialogue with a Russian writer at the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany, Zabuzhko drew a firm line and refused. In the three years since the full-scale invasion began, she pointed out, there has been no collective Russian action against the war.
“When you put them next to us, when you invite them to share the stage with Ukrainians, you legitimize them. You try to place them in the same category of suffering, as if their situation is comparable to ours,” she said.
Zabuzhko stressed that, while she might have a private conversation with an “anti-war” Russian writer, any public discussion would have to wait — that is, until Ukraine’s victory.
Chen Yung-chang is a freelance writer based in Taipei.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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