Nor did they use it for nothing but venting their grievances.  Rather, one important spirit of the literary tradition is that it encompasses both a vigorous culture and political resistance, evidenced by the phenomenon that Taiwanese writers were not only involved in literary activities but were closely associated with social and political movements.

     On the other hand, Huang-min wen-hsüeh (Literature of the Emperor's Subjects), which was produced as a response in wartime to the Japanese literary policy, displayed a turn to submission.  However, it could not stand the severe trial of time after all.  To sum up the literary experiences of the period of the Japanese occupation, the writers' resistance and submission turned out to be a clear mirror reflecting Taiwan's reality.  No writer in the period of Japanese occupation could avoid being assessed and assigned a position.

     Indisputably, after the Second World War, Taiwan literature was still shrouded in shadow:  with the change of the national language from Japanese to Chinese, the older generation of Taiwanese writers were muted for a long period of time, and when they reappeared on the literary scene, it was already the late 1970s.  The discontinuity in the literary heritage caused the development of Taiwan literature to make a detour once again.  However, Hsiang-t'u Literature (Regional Literature) found its way and eventually emerged in the 1970s even under the martial law.  Once more, this explains that literature originates from the land and people, and that ethereal concepts will surely not be able to secure people's recognition.  The orientation of Taiwan literature concerning its own village and native soil evoked many controversies.  It was thought that an over-emphasis on regionalism might impede the development of a literary work's depth and breadth as well as impoverish artistic pursuit.  Critics of this persuasion, I am afraid, may have neglected the strife-ridden background of time and space in Taiwan's history.  Hardships and sufferings of various kinds have befallen this land of Taiwan and its people over a long period of time.  This inevitably drove the writers to focus their attention on reality and thereby launched them in pursuit of an ideal world.  Several of Taiwan's Ta-ho novels ("Great River" novels, or saga novels) were produced at different times.  Cho-liu san-pu-ch'ü (Trilogy of Turbid Rivers) and T'ai-wan jen san-pu-ch'ü (Trilogy of the Taiwanese) by Chung Chao-cheng, Han-yeh san-pu-ch'ü (Trilogy of Cold Nights) by Li Ch'iao, and Lang t'ao sha (Waves Lap the Sand) by Tung-fang Pai, epic novels, which have drawn from the villages and native soil, eloquently speak volumes and are on a par with their counterparts in world literature.  The reason why up until today they have not received due recognition is not because they are not good enough, but because Taiwan is left without a stage in world politics.

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