https://www.soas.ac.uk/taiwanstudies/events/01dec2021-the-afterlife-of-taiwans-xiangtu-literature.html Talk: The Afterlife of Taiwan's Xiangtu Literature Speaker: Chen Li-Ping Date: 1 December 2021 Time: 5:00-7:00 PM UK Time
Venue: Virtual Event (This session will be held using Microsoft Teams. Click the LINK to join) Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies
Contact email: df2@soas.ac.uk
Speaker's bio: Chen Li-Ping is Postdoctoral Scholar and Teaching Fellow in the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include literary translingualism, diaspora, and nativism in inter-Asian and transpacific contexts. Li-Ping is also a podcast host for the East Asian Studies New Books Network.
Description: This talk revisits the development of nativist literature in Taiwan from the 1930s to the postcolonial era. I begin with an overview of the term xiangtu, particularly in relation to colonial resistance, local consciousness, and self-empowerment. The emphasis on locality, however, reinforces the settler colonial structure and territorial attachments that marginalize Taiwan’s indigenous communities and archipelagic network. With a close examination of the overlooked allusion to African cultural nationalism and the understudied contribution of overseas intellectuals in the xiangtu discourse, I point out the ultimate task of decolonization is to move beyond nativism in order to foster inter-community solidarity where all forms of hegemonic forces and coercive measures can be dismantled.