on the foundation of Wang Pai-yüan's 50,000 character "A History of Taiwan's Art Movement"and after much investigation, finished "Jih-chü shih-tai T'ai-wan mei-shu yün-tung-shih"(A History of Taiwan's Art Movement Under Japanese Occupation), I-shu chia, 1978. It is only after more than thirty years since the Japanese occupation period that we have such achievements. It is obvious that the direction taken by China-oriented education brought about this fissure in the literature and art produced locally on Taiwan; this is especially the case for literature, which has language-related problems. Those authors who wrote in Japanese during the Japanese occupation period were beset with all kinds of difficulties when trying to return to the literary arena, while the younger generation educated after the war, even those lovers of literature, generally do not know that the Taiwan New Literature Movement occurred during the Japanese occupation period, or that many outstanding works of literature were produced then. Speaking of the generation that was born early in the post-war period, even though in 1965 Yeh Shih-t'ao had already published "Tai-wan te hsiang-t'u wen-hsüeh"(Taiwan's Hsiang-t'u Literature) in Issue 97 of Wen-hsing (Literary Star), the most influential popular magazine, the number of young people under twenty who have ever read it and have a strong impression of it can absolutely be counted on one's fingers.

In Japan, by contrast, as early as 1974 Kawahara Isao of the generation born after the war submitted his MA thesis entitled "The Literary Activities in Taiwan Under the Japanese Occupation"to the Literature Department of Seikei University. How can it be that the younger generation on Taiwan know absolutely nothing about significant literary movements? The main reason lies with the direction taken by education--one that completely ignores education about native culture--and thus the experience of the older generation had no way to be transmitted. Now someone like Lin Tsai-chüeh, a graduate student of the History Department of Tung-hai University, was fortunately situated to learn some things directly from the old writer Yang K'uei, a gardener at the Tung-hai Nursery (his other identity: a "convicted rebel"). Lin later published, in December 1973, the article "Tai-wan wen-hsüeh te liang-chung ching-shen-Yang K'uei ho Chung Li-ho chih pi-chiao"(Two Types of Spirit in Taiwanese Literature: A Comparison Between Yang K'uei and Chung Li-ho) in Chung-wai wen-hsüeh (Literature: China and Abroad), demonstrating a concise and profound understanding of Taiwan's New Literature Movement. But such research was only considered work done in one's spare time, a situation fostered by the academic environment in the early 1970s. Given the greater academic arena at that time, there was no way the New Literature Movement on Taiwan could be rendered into a subject for a degree thesis or dissertation.

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