The issue of pedigree is of course superfluous to considerations of genuine literature. However, Taiwan literature today is different: it is at an important critical juncture where it faces total loss of internal cohesion and confronts the choice of either to seriously crystallize what is unique to the literature of this land or else to give up insisting it is unique to this land. Taiwan literature, like Taiwan history, is a hybrid of page after page of turbulent history, and its many diverse and striking elements give it a motley appearance. Although these diverse elements have contributed to the colorful history of Taiwan literature, they have also brought a concealed anxiety that Taiwan literature is rootless, like floating water weeds. Taiwan literature confronts the double pressure of being systematically reduced to a literary wasteland and struggling to extricate itself from the present impasse, so where it is heading and what constitutes its origins have become issues with far-reaching ramifications. Hence there have emerged people who use the criteria of the Nobel Prize, people who use the old standards of Chinese traditional literature, and people who postulate the government standpoint after the unification of China-in all cases professing these to be the compass for pointing the direction of Taiwan's literary development. If we go back to the above discussion on pedigree, we strike obstacles everywhere and quickly discover that the chaos and differing viewpoints all stem from the fact that Taiwan literature lacks a basis for evaluation and that it is impossible to tease out any criteria from its complex composition. Therefore it has become a matter of absolute urgency to establish a framework premised on the basic substance of Taiwan literature, which can be used to link up Taiwan literature's past history with its future.

Reviewing the establishment of the term "Taiwan literature'' is vital to the construction of this framework for examining the literature that has emerged in Taiwan. This will dispel fears about loss of internal cohesion and at the same time establish a unified and well-defined framework, which can be used to investigate the origins of Taiwan literature and to isolate a clear image of the Taiwan literature that has been developing for a long time in obscurity without being adequately defined. It can also serve as a guide for the critical examination of modern literary works. Provided that works sincerely reflect the history and reality of the lives of the people living on the island of Taiwan and are works rooted in this land, they can be called Taiwan literature. Therefore, the writers may not have been born in this land or for some reason may have left, but as long as their writings establish a shared consciousness of common destiny with this land and their happiness, anger, grief, and joy are closely linked to the pulsating melody of this land, we can include them in the camp of "Taiwan literature."

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