[3121] New literary collection in Romanized Taiwanese marks another milestone in the history of Taiwanese literature

New literary collection in Romanized Taiwanese marks another milestone in the history of Taiwanese literature

Reported by Sam Lee

Written by Lydia Ma

“Collection of Literary Works in Romanized Taiwanese” is a newly published 5-volume collection containing selected articles from Taiwan Church News between the years 1885 and 1920. This new collection aims to uncover developments in contemporary Taiwanese literature. Taiwanese literature written in Romanized Taiwanese (also known as vernacular Taiwanese or POJ) became popular when Rev. Thomas Barclay, founder of Taiwan Church News, began to promote it upon his arrival to Taiwan.

This collection is the result of 2 years of hard work in gathering and sorting information; and the end product is 5 volumes containing more than 2,000 pages worth of articles sorted into the following categories: Literature (foreign prose translated into POJ), novel, script, poetry, song, Taiwanese prose, and Taiwanese discourses. The main source of these articles is Taiwan Church News and some POJ works published in the 1920s.

During a formal unveiling of this book on December 16, 2011, attended by more than 100 people, including Taiwan Church Press President Joseph Chen, National Museum of Taiwan Literature Director Lee Jui-teng, Tainan City Government Bureau of Education Chief Cheng Pang-chen, and National Cheng-Kung University Department of Taiwanese Literature professor Wi-vun Taiffalo Chiungs, the importance and contribution of this collection to contemporary Taiwanese literature was affirmed. Henceforth, this collection will be distributed and sold by Taiwan Church Press throughout its bookstores across Taiwan.

“Taiwan Church News isn’t merely a property of the Presbyterian Church,” said Taiwan Church Press President Joseph Chen. “It is first and foremost the common property of Taiwanese people.” He added that Rev. William Barclay founded Taiwan Church News to complement other ministries in the PCT and Baclay’s vision was to use Romanized Taiwanese to introduce Christianity and new knowledge to people at the time.

Chiang, who is the general editor of this collection, underscored that this new collection confirms the use of vernacular language in literature came well before the May Fourth Movement, a time previously heralded as the beginning of the use of vernacular language in Chinese literature. He hopes that this collection will spark Taiwanese people’s interest in their mother tongue and cultural heritage.