     Looking back now at the 1930s, it is clear that from the establishment of the concept of Taiwanese literature to the New Literature Movement during the entire period of Japanese occupation, in no way could Taiwanese literature be explained merely in terms of artistic qualities.

     For example, consider the father of Taiwan's New Literature, Lai Ho, Taiwan's Lu Hsun; one could describe him as a Taiwanese writer with a particularly strong Chinese consciousness solely on the basis of his consistent use of Chinese throughout his life, but I am afraid things are not so simple. He had a strong Han consciousness as inheritor of Han culture, but he was also the leader of Taiwanese leftist literature; and although he was not a member of the Communist party, he supported the leftist political movement on Taiwan. And (just like China's Lu Hsun), to categorize Lai Ho is definitely no simple matter.

     Yeh Shih-t'ao gives the following summary in his article "Hsin-wen-hsueh-chia te shuang-ch'ung-hsing min-tsu chieh-kou" (The Dual Nationalistic Structure of New Literature Writers):

     After the Taiwanese New Literature Movement began during the 1920s, Taiwanese nationalism became one of the major spiritual supports of Taiwanese New Literature. Although the New Literature writers during the Japanese occupation period already possessed the idea of modern nationalism, and furthermore had cast off the Han consciousness of the early modern period, that is, they considered the people across the straits as Chinese and thought of themselves as Taiwanese with a Taiwan that was "the Taiwan of the Taiwanese," nevertheless, they never went in the direction of a national division. Putting it more correctly, the New Literature writers of that period all had a dual nationalistic structure; that is, recognition that one is Chinese while at the same time being Taiwanese does not create a contradiction.

     Such a statement is worth pondering carefully. When mention is made in the article that "they never went in the direction of a national division," that is in the context of the Taiwanese under Japanese rule. The nationality problem in that case related to the Japanese nationality and "division" meant to divide off from Japan; naturally there would be no need to separate from China. However, speaking in political terms, it does not necessarily mean that Taiwan is heading towards a unification with China either. The longing for a "cultural China" in no way demands an identification with a "political China."

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