Chinese Poets Since 1949 ed. by Christopher Lupke and Thomas Moran (review)

Nativist Literature due to its emphasis on realism and regionalism, rather than abstractness and internationalism. In the ensuing chapters, Ye describes the tensions between immigrant writers from mainland China writing in Chinese and Taiwan-born writers who had always written in Japanese. In Chapter 7 titled “Taiwan Literature in the 1970’s: Nativism or Human Nature?” Ye describes the Debate over Nativist Literature, which became crucial to finding a new path for the development of literature that would reflect the hearts and minds of Taiwan’s 19 million citizens. While many intellectuals participated in this debate and advocated a broad range of views, Ye staunchly asserts that “only Nativist literature, applied to the real lives of ordinary people in Taiwan, could serve as the spiritual sustenance of the common folk of Taiwan and rise to the level of world literature” (296).