The Republic of China East Asian Fellowship from the Center for Chinese Studies has supported a critical stage in my dissertation writing, enabling me to travel to Taiwan to study the Lukang poet Hong Qisheng (1867–1929) and his milieu. Meeting with professors of literature at National Taiwan University and Fu Jen Catholic University, along with a contingent of their graduate students, I benefitted immensely from informal chats about my dissertation progress and guided tours of complex archives. Using the Hanzhen zhishiwang 漢珍知識網 database in particular, I came upon an essay Hong published in an 1897 issue of Taiwan Shinpō 臺灣新報, the newly-founded propagandistic newspaper of the colonial government. In light of the dominant discourse surrounding Hong Qisheng, which portrays him as an anticolonial poet, I was surprised to find his work published in this pro-government forum, and this finding has fundamentally altered my line of inquiry.
In addition to my research in Taipei, support from CCS allowed me to conduct field research around the island, as I traveled to a number of historic sites which are germane to my biographical inquiry and the larger currents of Qing expansion which inform it, such as Tainan’s original “eight views of Taiwan” 臺灣八景and the exhibition on “The Imperial Examination System in Taiwan” 科舉制度在臺灣, which was held at the cultural center on Lukang’s Old Street. Extended time along the coast, moreover, has boosted my phenomenological approach to Taiwan’s coastal literature.
- Hardy Stewart
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures