Yang Kui (; 18 October 1906 – 12 March 1985) or Yō Ki, originally named Yang Kui (楊貴), was a
Taiwanese writer and
social activist
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...
born in
Tainan
Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the "Taiwan Prefecture, ...
,
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 ...
. He used
pen names
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
such as Yang-kuei (楊逵), Yang Chien-wen (楊建文), Lai Chien-erh (賴健兒), Lin Ssu-wen (林泗文), and Ito Ryo (伊東 亮).
Raised in Japanese-language schools, Yang Kui went to the Japanese mainland, where he experienced both persecution and acceptance, especially by Japanese communists. Under these influences he became a proletarian novelist. After World War II, he was imprisoned by the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
government from 1949 to 1961. After being released from prison, he had to learn the Chinese language from his granddaughter , as Japanese had been the common language of Taiwan until the time of his imprisonment.
Yang Kuei actively participated in various
social movements
A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of ...
and organizations, including the during the
Japanese rule period, the
Taiwanese Cultural Association
The Taiwanese Cultural Association (TCA; ) was an important organization during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. It was founded by Chiang Wei-shui on 17 October 1921, in Daitōtei, a district in modern-day Taipei. It gathers Taiwanese intellectuals ...
,
Taiwan Alliance for Literature and Arts, and the opposition movement after the arrival of the
Nationalist government
The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...
.
In honor of Yang Kuei, the
Yang Kui Literature Memorial Museum was established in
Xinhua District,
Tainan City
Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a special municipality in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the " prefectural capital" for its over 260-year histo ...
. It officially opened on November 27, 2005,
and features Yang Kuei's manuscripts, documents, such as the first edition of "
The Newspaper Carrier" translated by
Hu Feng
Hu Feng (, November 2, 1902 – June 8, 1985) was a Chinese Marxist writer, poet and literary theorist. He was a prominent member of the League of Left-Wing Writers. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hu Feng became a member ...
(胡風) and published by
Tung Hua Book Co. in 1947, and other artifacts.
Life
Early life
Yang Kui was born the child of a tinsmith family. He entered
Daimokukō Public School in 1915, having delayed doing so due to health problems. In 1915, Yang was a witness to the
Jiaobanian Incident, which changed his view of the Japanese negatively. After graduation from Daimokukō Public School, Yang studied at
Tainan No. 2 High School, where he read the literary works of
Natsume Sōseki
, born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', ''Kusamakura (novel), Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness (novel), Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of Br ...
,
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (written: 芥川) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*, Japanese poet and writer
*, Japanese composer and conductor, son of Akutagawa Ryunosuke
*, Japanese painter
* David Akutagawa (1937–2008), Japanese-Can ...
, and
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
, as well as works of Russian literature and Revolutionary French literature, including especially ''
Les Miserables
LES or Les may refer to:
People
* Les (given name)
* Les (surname)
* L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer
Space flight
* Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews
* Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies
* Lincoln Experimental ...
'' by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician.
His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...
, which "particularly touched" him due to its description of social conflict.
In 1923, having read the book ''Taiwan hishi'' (A Record of Taiwanese Rebels) that went against his experience of the Jiaobanian Incident, Yang began to write to "correct history". He moved to Tokyo in 1924 to escape a proposed marriage to his parents' adoptive daughter and to study social thought. In Tokyo, Yang encountered "proletarian literature", reading leftist magazines and participating in leftist movements. In 1926, Yang founded a cultural studies group and met avant-garde playwright
Sasaki Takamaru, and in 1927, he founded a "Study Meeting for Social Science". He was later arrested for being involved in an anti-Japanese lecture.
Return to Taiwan
Yang returned to Taiwan in 1927, joining the Taiwan Peasants’ Association. In 1928, he was elected to the committee of the
Taiwanese Cultural Association
The Taiwanese Cultural Association (TCA; ) was an important organization during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. It was founded by Chiang Wei-shui on 17 October 1921, in Daitōtei, a district in modern-day Taipei. It gathers Taiwanese intellectuals ...
, through which in 1929 he met his mentor
Lai He. Both organizations were later disbanded in March 1931 by the colonial government in their suppression of Taiwanese communists. With radicalism having been suppressed, Yang began again to write heavily.
Writing
Yang Kui's debut in Japanese literary circles was through his work ''Jiyū rōdōsha no seikatsu danmen'' (A Slice of the Life of Free Laborers), which was published in 1927 in the official magazine of the
Journalists Association of Tokyo, ''Gōgai''.
In 1932, Yang published his work ''The Newspaper Boy'' in ''Taiwan xinminbao'' (Taiwan New People's News). It was published in Chinese as ''Songbaofu''. Yang published under the name Yang Kui instead of his original name Yang Gui, having been convinced to do so by Lai He. In 1934, his short story “The Newspaper Carrier” (新聞配達夫) was selected for the Tokyo ''
Bungaku hyōron'' (文學評論) magazine', marking the first time a Taiwanese writer entered the mainstream literary field in Japan.
It was during this period that he first used the pen name "Yang Kuei", and it helped to establish Yang Kuei's reputation as a novelist.
Yang Kuei began writing in Japanese, and his early works included essays, short stories, and novels. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he continued to write, but he was arrested for his involvement in social movements and for publishing the "
Peace Declaration
Peace Declaration is an annual speech delivered by the Mayor of Hiroshima on August 6, the day that city was destroyed by an atom bomb delivered by a US B-29. That speech has been delivered regularly since 1947, except for 1950, when the US occupat ...
".
While in prison, his Chinese writing skills matured. His short story "
The Indomitable Rose" (originally titled "Spring Light Can't Be Confined") was included in high school Chinese textbooks, marking the first instance of a work by a Taiwanese writer from the Japanese rule period being selected for textbooks. Yang Kuei was a self-described "socialist with a humanitarian heart." He believed that literature should be written from the perspective of the people, and he used his writing to expose social injustice and the suffering and oppression of the working class.
No. 38 of ''Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series'' (2016) is a special issue dedicated to Yang Kuei.
Yang was influenced by Russian
realist literature, Karl Marx's
Capital
Capital and its variations may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital
** List of national capitals
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter
Econom ...
, and Japanese proletarian movements, using them to influence his socialist ideas. He had also been influenced by anarchism, having read
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...
and
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism.
Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...
after the death of
Ōsugi Sakae
was a prominent Japanese anarchist who was jailed multiple times for his writings and activism. He was murdered alongside his partner, Itō Noe, in what became known as the Amakasu Incident.
Biography
Ōsugi was born on January 17, 1885. ...
. Yang identified as a "humanitarian socialist", and associated with Japanese socialists and unionists. He defended realism, and believed that literature "had to come from the indigenous soil" instead of being about "the war effort or personal aestheticism".
See also
*
Yang Kui Literature Memorial Museum
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
External links
"The Indomitable Rose-- The Yang Kui Literary Memorial Hall ,"Taiwan Culture Portal, 15 May 2007
*
壓不扁的玫瑰 (The Indomitable Rose) by Yang K'uei
*
楊逵文學的流變佮伊的意義(The Significance of Fluctuating Yang Kui's Literature).
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang Kui
1905 births
1985 deaths
Taiwanese male novelists
Taiwanese prisoners and detainees
Writers from Tainan
20th-century Taiwanese novelists
20th-century Taiwanese male writers