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Wu Chuo-liu (), born Wu Jiantian () (2 June 1900, Shimpu, Shinchiku – 7 October 1976,
His family was long established in Shimpu in what is now called Hsinchu County. His grandfather, Wu Fang-hsin, was a well-known traditional poet. He began with a standard Chinese education but, due to the Japanese rule, most of his studies were conducted in the Japanese manner. In 1916, he was admitted to the "". In 1919, he visited Japan for the first time on a school trip that lasted 18 days—it was an eye opener. He graduated in 1920 and became a teacher in the public schools.
After publishing an article called "School and Autonomy", he was labeled a radical by the Japanese government and transferred to a village school in Byōritsu District. In 1927, he joined the , a group that would produce some of Taiwan's best known modern poets. Ten years later, he managed to secure an appointment as "" of the schools in Kansai, Shinchiku, but he resigned in 1940, following an incident in which the teachers were insulted by the Japanese authorities.
In 1941, he went to China and worked as a reporter in
WU ZHUOLIU ARCHIVE
b
Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Zhouliu 20th-century Taiwanese poets Hakka writers Taiwanese people of Hakka descent People from Hsinchu County 20th-century Taiwanese educators Taiwanese male novelists 1900 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Taiwanese novelists Taiwanese schoolteachers 20th-century Taiwanese male writers Taiwanese journalists
Taipei
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?) was an influential Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
ese journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...
of Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...
ancestry. He has been described as the most powerful witness to history in Taiwanese letters. Many of his most important novels were first written in Japanese.
Life and work
His family was long established in Shimpu in what is now called Hsinchu County. His grandfather, Wu Fang-hsin, was a well-known traditional poet. He began with a standard Chinese education but, due to the Japanese rule, most of his studies were conducted in the Japanese manner. In 1916, he was admitted to the "". In 1919, he visited Japan for the first time on a school trip that lasted 18 days—it was an eye opener. He graduated in 1920 and became a teacher in the public schools.
After publishing an article called "School and Autonomy", he was labeled a radical by the Japanese government and transferred to a village school in Byōritsu District. In 1927, he joined the , a group that would produce some of Taiwan's best known modern poets. Ten years later, he managed to secure an appointment as "" of the schools in Kansai, Shinchiku, but he resigned in 1940, following an incident in which the teachers were insulted by the Japanese authorities.
In 1941, he went to China and worked as a reporter in Nanking
Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400.
Situated in the Yan ...
for ''Mainland'' ''News'' (大陸新聞). He stayed in China for 15 months and returned home in 1943 and took a position with the '' Taiwan Daily News''. These experiences served as the inspiration for his most famous work, ''Orphan of Asia ''The book Orphan of Asia'' (Japanese: アジアの孤児) is a Japanese-language novel written by Taiwanese writer Wu Cho-liu at the end of World War II, completed in 1945. It was initially published as "Hu Chih-ming", after the novel's protagonis ...
'', a semi-autobiographical account of the experiences of a fictional protagonist named Hu Taiming () during the course of the colonial period. This work, which highlighted the ambiguity and tension inherent in being Taiwanese, has since become a key text in the contentious subject of Taiwanese identity. He is also known for his autobiography ''The Fig Tree'' ().
After the war, he continued his journalistic work at the ', but the political repression that followed the February 28 incident
The February 28 incident (also called the February 28 massacre, the 228 incident, or the 228 massacre) was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang–led nationalist government of the R ...
of 1947 forced him to abandon this line of work for seven years. During that time, he served as director of the .
In 1964, Wu was one of the founders of the magazine ', which served as a starting point for many of Taiwan's young aspiring writers. At that time though, emphasizing Taiwanese identity was still politically controversial and Wu was pressured by the authorities to drop 'Taiwan' from the title of his magazine. He demurred: "what I want to promote is Taiwan native literature and arts. Drop 'Taiwan' rom the titleand the whole venture loses its meaning". The title stayed.
In 1969, using money from his own pension, Wu established the Taiwan Literature Award (台灣文學獎) – it was later renamed the . It remains one of Taiwans's prestigious literary awards to this day.
He died in 1976, following a brief illness.
Bibliography
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* * *External links
WU ZHUOLIU ARCHIVE
b
Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Zhouliu 20th-century Taiwanese poets Hakka writers Taiwanese people of Hakka descent People from Hsinchu County 20th-century Taiwanese educators Taiwanese male novelists 1900 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Taiwanese novelists Taiwanese schoolteachers 20th-century Taiwanese male writers Taiwanese journalists