Representing Atrocity in Taiwan: The 2/28 Incident and White Terror in Fiction and Film PDF
Preview Representing Atrocity in Taiwan: The 2/28 Incident and White Terror in Fiction and Film
representing atrocity in taiwan global chinese culture global chinese culture David Der-wei Wang, Editor michael berry Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers Representing Atrocity in Taiwan the 2/28 incident and white terror in fiction and film Sylvia Li-chun Lin columbia university press new york Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and Council for Cultural Affairs in the publication of this series. Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the University of Notre Dame toward the cost of publishing this book. Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lin, Sylvia Li-chun. Representing atrocity in Taiwan : the 2/28 incident and white terror in fction and flm / Sylvia Li-chun Lin. p. cm. — (Global Chinese culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-231-14360-8 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978-0-231-51281-7 (electronic) 1. Taiwan—History—February Twenty Eighth Incident, 1947. 2. Taiwan—History—1945– I. Title. II. Title: 2/28 incident and white terror in fction and flm. III. Series. DS799.823.L57 2007 951.24'905—dc22 2007023259 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America Designed by Audrey Smith c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Howard—L. I. G. contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Chinese Words and Names xiii Prologue: Looking Backward 1 part i. literary representation 15 1. Ethnicity and Atrocity 19 2. Documenting the Past 47 3. Engendering Victimhood 73 part ii. cinematic re-creation 97 4. Past Versus Present 101 5. Screening Atrocity 128 6. Memory as Redemption 154 Epilogue: Looking Forward 173 Notes 183 Bibliography 215 Index 235 acknowledgments “my mother went to the market on the morning of 2/28. She returned with an empty basket and told us she’d seen many bodies on the street.” That is my frst “memory” of the 2/28 Incident, as related by one of my sisters-in-law. I can still picture the frightened look on her face, but what strikes me most now, thirty years later, is how she abruptly stopped, after a stern look from my mother. I didn’t know then what 2/28 was, but I didn’t dare ask, having sensed a deep- rooted fear in them. The fear was contagious, and I never did ask her. There was a dirty-looking man begging at the market, the sight of whom always threw a fright into me. Crippled, he dragged himself along on useless legs in tattered pants. He seemed to be nearly blind, for he looked at people with a blank stare; I was just tall enough to meet his hollow eyes. Everyone in town was kind to him. I later learned that he’d once complained loudly about the taxes he had to pay. He soon disappeared, reappearing in the marketplace three months later, having lost his mind along with his mobility under brutal treatment by the Garrison Command, which suspected him of acting as a Com- munist spy. This book grew out of personal memories of living in Taiwan under martial law, but also out of a scholarly impetus to examine this page of Taiwanese history. The research and writing have been supported by various organizations, the most generous of which has been my home institution: a start-up research fund and a library account when acknowledgments I was hired at Notre Dame paved the way for acquiring indispensable books and flms; a faculty research grant further helped augment my collection of research material, with the hiring of a research assistant in Taiwan during the SARS scare, when travel to Asia was inadvis- able; a summer stipend and salary recovery during my year of leave provided me with the time to write; fnally, a publication subvention from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts helped make this book available. I truly appreciate the assistance from the University of Notre Dame. My thanks also to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for Scholarly Exchange for a junior scholar grant that made it possible for me to take a year off to write and revise. Several people read portions of the manuscript at various stages: Bonnie Adrian kindly lent her expertise on ethnicity by reading the frst section of chapter 1; Nick Kaldis supplied thoughtful comments on the prologue, the introduction to part I, and chapters 2 and 5; Christopher Lupke provided timely and sensible suggestions on chap- ter 3; and Jeffrey Kinkley sent his insightful comments on the pro- logue, the introduction to part I, and chapters 1 and 2. I thank Chris and Nick for their camaraderie and support. To Professor Kinkley goes my deepest gratitude for his unfailing support since I frst arrived in the United States for postgraduate work. I also must thank my former graduate student and dissertation advisee, Heng-hsing Liu, himself an outstanding scholar. Serving as my research assistant in Taiwan, he helped collect valuable material and is always on the lookout for the latest scholarship from Taiwan on my behalf. Over the years, I have benefted from the friendship and support of more kind and generous people than it is possible to thank here. A few must be mentioned, however: William Tay, for his interest in my work, his generosity toward his friends, and an incredible memory that pro- vided immediate bibliographic information; Lili Selden, for her effer- vescent attitude toward life and her unstinting friendship since my frst visit to the Notre Dame campus; Joyce Wong Kroll and Victoria Cass, for their love of language and a good read. It is diffcult to express just how much their friendship and moral support have meant to me. Jennifer Crewe, of Columbia University Press, always an enthusias- tic supporter of literature from Taiwan, deserves mention here; with- out her discerning eye and literary taste, the best Taiwanese fction would not see the light of day. I also thank my editor at the press, Irene
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