Ecocriticism refers to the ensemble of cultural production (literary writing, film-making, installation art, and the theater) that explores the contested relationship between culture and nature in the present era of ecological crisis. This edited volume brings together fifteen chapters that shed light on Taiwan's recent evolution on this front. According to the editors, Taiwan emerged as “one of the epicenters” (p. ix) in developing environmentally conscious literary and artistic works. A particular style of “cosmopolitan vernacularism” is found to animate these intellectual explorations and discussions, as these locally rooted authors are paying close attention to global trends. The result is a creative mixture, in which Taiwan's indigenous people play a prominent role since their pre-colonial lifestyle and myths provide an abiding inspiration for how Taiwanese might reconcile the contradiction between industrial capitalism and sustainability.
Taiwan has witnessed a strong surge of environmental protests during the last decade. Projects in science parks and tourist resorts, once seen as a badly needed stimulus to the sluggish economy, began to encounter local resistance. In 2011, the government was forced to cancel a major petrochemical project, and construction of a nuclear power plant was shelved in 2014. With the advent of a Democratic Progressive Party government in 2016, an ambitious renewable energy program was under way; Taiwan expected to become completely free of nuclear energy as soon as 2017, the first Asian nation to embark on this decidedly pro-environment course. Set against the above-mentioned background, this timely volume provides a clue to understanding the outpourings of environmentalism. Literary writers, such as Wang Chia-hsiang, Wu Sheng, and Wu Ming-yi, not only produced works that vividly portrayed environmental degradation, but also played the leading role in a number of conservation and anti-pollution protests. Film documentaries have been an important medium by which to communicate the message of environmental movements since the late 1980s. Over the nearly three decades since then, their aesthetics and functions have undergone a significant change. Two chapters that analyze Poisoned Sky (2009) and Beyond Beauty (2013) reveal that this audio-visual production continued as a popular channel for the advocacy of environmental reforms.
It is clear that Taiwan's rich diversity in culture and nature encouraged literary and artistic reflection on the contemporary ecological issues. The Bunan (an indigenous people) legend of a primeval flood and the Buddhist story of “Mulian Rescues his Mother” are the existing cultural sources that lend themselves to an updated elaboration on the troubled relationship between mankind and the environment. Wang Chia-hsiang began his literary career writing on the environmental plight in heavily industrialized Kaohsiung, while Wu Ming-yi's rightly acclaimed novel The Man with Compound Eyes deals with the environmental future of Taiwan's east coast. Egoyan's apocalyptical novel Ground Zero depicts the political fallout of a nuclear catastrophe. Liu Kexiang's prolific writings on animal stories stem from his bird-watching experiences. Suffice it to say, this environmentally-themed literary output emerged as a dynamic genre in Taiwan's contemporary literature, which is characterized by its multiculturalism, social engagement, intellectual sophistication, as well as the boldness to experiment with novel artistic styles.
The book's contributors come from the disciplinary background of literary and cultural studies, and most chapters aim at providing a well-informed exegesis on the text in question, particularly since the book amounts to the first collective investigation on this topic published in English. As such, there are only a few chapters that venture to raise the larger questions on the context. The reader might be intrigued by the social conditions that make possible the flourishing of ecocriticism in Taiwan, especially since the country is prevented from joining international environmental treaties, and major international environmental organizations avoid establishing a local chapter there.
As a matter of fact, implicit in these text analyses is a strong current of cultural indigenization that brings about a Taiwan-centered identity that glorifies its distinctive cultural blending and the beauty of mountains and rivers. Austronesian indigenous peoples become the authentic Taiwanese in this nationalistic imagery, and the natural scenery with its flora and fauna form a collective heritage. In this new outlook, Chinese traditions are no longer the orthodox culture, but a component in the avowedly multicultural Taiwanese nationalism. The chapter on the documentary Beyond Beauty correctly identifies a national imagery in its narrative. The author notices a puzzle in that the nature-as-a-mother metaphor, one of the “most hackneyed clichés of environmental rhetoric” in the west (p. 59), generates a powerful effect in this film. Yet, if we pay more attention to the political context, we will know that the Taiwan-as-a-mother image first emerged as a shared figure of speech among Taiwan independence movement activists who challenged the patrilineal narrative of a Chinese fatherland by the Kuomintang. Beyond Beauty made a seemingly apolitical appropriation of this symbol, and its success undoubtedly comes from the growing consolidation of a Taiwan-centered identity. In short, there exist deeper and easily neglected connections between the aspiration for an authentic nationhood and the call for environmental protection.
Except for the three chapters that look at avant-garde installation arts and theater, which are necessarily exoteric in nature, another infrequently asked question on the text and the context is about the reader response to these literary productions. Some of the literary texts represent intellectual interventions in environmental debates; for example, Egoyan's novel is clearly stimulated by the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear activism. The blooming of Taiwan's indigenous literature cannot be understood without reference to the continuous campaign for ethnic justice and dignity. Do these cultural productions enable the environmentalists to reach a broader audience? Taiwan's environmental movements used to be led by scientists and lawyers, and these professionals employed a language that was often difficult for laypeople. How do we evaluate the role of ecocriticism in the environmental movement in Taiwan that is becoming more and more mainstream?
With the landmark publication of this volume, the study of Taiwan's environmental literature and arts has emerged as a legitimate research field, and I trust that further investigations can be enriched by enlarging the focus of attention from textual exegesis to include more analysis on the context.
