Proletariat Poetry in Taiwan (1927–1932)

Title

Proletariat Poetry in Taiwan (1927–1932)

Author

Shih-Chin CHANG

Page

59-104

DOI

10.6163/TJEAS.202306_20(1).0003

Abstract

This paper examines how Taiwanese modern poetry circles accepted the concept of the proletariat poetry of Japan (プロレタリア詩) and China (普羅詩派) through different literary magazines during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan. This research also probes how the poets at this time started writing proletariat poetry “in Taiwan” and then developed into writing “Taiwan’s” proletariat poetry. This paper is divided into two parts. First, the acceptance of the proletariat poetry of Japan and China in Taiwan during 1927–1930 is described based on discussion of three magazines: the Japanese Era Without Tracks and the Chinese Flood News and Equator. The second part of this paper explores the disconnection of these proletariat poems from the colonial reality and explains how, in 1931–1932, a new literary community and new creative direction broke through this dilemma of proletariat poetry in Taiwan. The research material examined comes from Taiwan Literature, a literary magazine founded in 1931 in both the Chinese and Japanese languages. In the 1930s, the authorities’ oppression of the left-wing movement left little scope for the further development of the ultra-left movement and its literary and poetical works. However, the spirit of proletariat poetry, its thinking on class relations, and its emphasis on the particularity of colonial Taiwan gradually became a consensus among Taiwanese left-wing poets.

Keyword

Nakano Shigeharu, Fujiwara Sensaburou, Kami Seiya, Hsu Yuan-chen, Hsu Chiung-erh

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