From Empire to Motherland: Writing and the Politics of Translation in the Literatures of Transcolonial Taiwan, 1937-1960 by Mei-Chen Pan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Jonathan Zwicker, Co-Chair Professor Yopie Prins, Co-Chair Associate Professor Youngju Ryu Professor Xiaobing Tang © Mei-Chen Pan 2016 Dedicated to my parents, Kira, and Yuchung with a heart full of love and gratitude ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Department of Comparative Literature for having provided an intellectually nurturing and enlightening environment for my academic pursuit. I also appreciate its financial support in the forms of fellowships, teaching appointments, summer funding, and study-abroad fellowships. I am grateful to Rackham for awarding me Barbour Scholarship and Graduate Research Grant. I would like to thank Sweetland Center for Writing for letting me participate in Dissertation Writing Institute. With all these generous forms of supprt, I have been able to study and do research in China, Japan, and Taiwan, and to own the luxury of concentrating on writing the dissertation. I am especially thankful to have been supported by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education during my study in the United States. I extremely appreciate the support and guidance of my committee. My dissertation chair Professor Jonathan Zwicker has shown me how to think innovatively but write with great precision and logic. His wit always opened up new routes for me when I felt facing dead ends. I would not be able to develop my project with confidence without his insights in comparative East Asian studies. I am truly lucky to have his generous support. Since I entered the program, my other dissertation chair Professor Yopie Prins has offered me wise advice and firm support in various aspects. Her patience and belief in me have greatly encouraged me to carry on my project and to develop my academic identity. I truly admire iii her wisdom, openness, and elegance. Professor Xiaobing Tang has taught me the dedication and rigor that are required in doing research. It was a great pleasure working as a graduate student instructor for his class Inrtoduction to Modern Chinese Culture. I have learned greatly from him on how to construct a class and teach effectively. And finally, Professor Youngju Ryu always impresses me with her crystal clear thoughts. Everytime after I met with her, I felt more confident in how to enhance and deepen my interpretation thanks to her insightful and constructive comments. She is a model mentor and scholar for me. I am also grateful to Professor Frieda Ekotto, whose vigor and encouragement have helped me persist through tough times. I am so lucky to have stayed close with this amazing artist of life. Professor Anton Shammas has taught me how to be a respectful and warm mentor. The time spent with him was one of the most unforgettable memories in my years in Michigan. Professor Anne Herrman has been extremely supportive and understanding. I would have given up without her kind and firm support. I would like to thank Nancy Harris, the graduate coordinator of the department, who has always offered me strength with her humor, laughters, and wisdom during my years in Michigan. It was great pleasure to be around with my fellow complitters. I have enjoyed the company of my cohort—Basak Candar, Chris Meade, Maria Hadjipolycarpou, Shannon Winston, and Spencer Hawkins—who have given me intellectual stimulus and emotional support. The time we spent together at Old Town and Ashley’s has been one of the tokens of my graduate study. I especially cherish the frienship with Basak and Chris, my previous roommates, who have made me feel at home in Ann Arbor. And Emily Goedde, my precious friend, whose strength, gracefulness, kindness, and wisdom have enlightened me in so many ways. Without iv her company and support I would not be able to finish the dissertation. Having met her family makes me realize where her strength and charm come from. I am very grateful to have become close to Theo, Lena, Brian, Jean, and Craig, who are so adorable, warm, and lovely. My Taiwanese friends Ason Chiang, Chuang-Chung Hu, Huiwen Chuang, and Bonnie Hsieh have cared for me in the past years. They made me feel at home during severe winters and late night writings in Michigan. I am indebted to my parents, Pan Muhuei and Yo Bisha, who have unconditionally supported me no matter what I chose to do. Even though they have little idea of what my work is about, they have allowed me to go this far, both physically and academically. My father always maintains a sense of curiosity and a yearning for knowledge, which has influenced my interest in reading since I was young. My mother, who is kind, loving, and sincere, has taught me how to love and give. She, who cannot speak English, was so brave to come to the United States alone to watch Kira for me so I could concentrate on my dissertation. It was so precious for me to have spent quality time with her after I have lived in the US and have become a mother. My daughter Kira, who was born in the middle of dissertation writing, has brightened up my life. Without her lovely company and distraction, the days when I worked alone in Michigan would be so unbearable. The joy of watching her achieve each milestone, big or small, overlaps with my joy of accomplishing each piece of writing. v And to Yuchung, who brings zest to my life with his fearlessness and creativity. His various habits such as painting, making sake, and growing bonsai have colored my tedious days of reading and writing. He always leads me to new adventures while providing me a sound base of life. I am so lucky to have him in my life. Thank you. vi Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii List of Images viii Abstract ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Recalcitrant Translation: The Transwar Writing of Lü Heruo 24 Chapter 2 Inhabitant of East Asia: Zhong Lihe’s Experimentations with Stateless Identity 69 Chapter 3 Double Diaspora and Muted Informant: Lin Haiyin’s Task in the Transwar Period 108 Chapter 4 Cacophonous and Undisciplined Women’s Discourse: Sakaguchi Reiko’s Transcolonial Writing 155 Conclusion From Empire to Motherland to Mother Tongue 201 Bibliography 208 vii List of Images Image 1: Exhibitory Space of Mothers’ Voice 3 Image 2: Advertisement on the Inaugural Issue of Xin Xin (Index page) 26 Image 3: Painting of “Fortune, Sons, and Longevity” 35 Image 4: Exhibition on Lin Haiyin 109 Image 5: Ikeda Toshio’s Japanese Translation of the Winter-Born Maiden Ballad 140 Image 6: Lin Haiyin’s Chinese Phoneticization of the Winter-Born Maiden Ballad 141 viii Abstract “From Empire to Motherland: Writing and the Politics of Translation in the Literatures of Transcolonial Taiwan, 1937-1960” examines the literary culture of Taiwan from the end of the Japanese colonial period through the war, liberation, and the subsequent arrival of the Nationalist regime from Mainland China. Focusing on Lu Heruo (1914-1951), Zhong Lihe (1915-1960), Lin Haiyin (1918-2001), and Sakaguchi Reiko (1914-2007), the dissertation demonstrates how these four writers grappled with the enforcement of two monolingualisms during the transwar period, and how their writing reflects multilingual soundscape through an emphasis on cacophony, intertextuality, and translation. The introduction argues for a transcolonial approach to reconceptualize complex relationships between wartime and postwar periods, and to reconfigure the existent markers that separate these writers into unrelated categories. Chapter 1 reads Japanese and Chinese stories by Lu Heruo ("A Happy Family” and “Warfare in Hometown") to analyze how the rhetoric of untranslatability creates a malleable, multilingual space within the monolingual text. Chapter 2 analyzes forms of intertextuality and intersubjectivity in Zhong Lihe’s “The Fourth Day,” “Outlaws and Hill Songs,” and “Willow Shade," suggesting how translatability serves to create transnational identity. Chapter 3 reconstructs the importance of Lin Haiyin in the 1950s in bridging the knowledge gap between Japanese and Chinese materials through re-phoneticization and translation. It also repositions Lin’s signature nostalgic work Old Stories from Peking’s Southside as a transcolonial work that releases the sentiments of “double diaspora.” Chapter 4 analyzes how Japanese writer Sakaguchi Reiko ix translates diverse sounds into creating a Taiwanese women’s discourse that disturbs the male-dominated imperialist and Nationalist discourses in “The Zheng Family” and “The Story of Indigenous Woman Ropō.” A close reading of these writers in relation to each other demonstrates a complex multilingual legacy made visible and audible in The National Museum of Taiwan Literature, where visitors are now encouraged to hear the cacophonous literary heritage and to review the unsettling relationship between aurality and textuality. This dissertation sheds new light on the most contested literary history of Taiwan, and addresses the ambiguous linguistic territory intersected by Japanese- language literature and Sinophone literature. Keywords Taiwan literature; transcolonial; monolingualism; translation studies; Sinophone literature; Japanese-language literature x Introduction The linguistic history of modern Taiwan is marked by the enforcement of two monolingualisms. Taiwan first acquired the concept of a communal “national language” under Japanese colonial rule from 1895-1945. Prior to colonization, there was no single unified language; rather, multiple tongues were spoken by different ethnic groups, including diverse indigenous tribes and immigrants from various parts of China. The Japanese colonial government established an educational system to teach the Japanese language to the people of Taiwan. While this was the first time in Taiwan that different ethnic groups could communicate through a communal language, the space for the use of native tongues shrunk significantly.1 The use of other languages was forbidden especially after the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.