| Starting from the Criticism by LuXun about the evilness of one nation during May Fourth New Culture Movement to the searching for root of culture in the mainland in the 1980 s, “root” was the most obsessing spiritual question for Chinese since 20 century.The Root-searching Literature in Mainland China(1980s), following the Root-searching Literature in Taiwan(1940s-1970s), presented a unique view to observe the national survival and modern development of national culture. Three times of revival of the Root-searching Literature in Taiwan, as well as the development of Root-searching Literature in Mainland, were closely related to the most significant incidents concerning the survival of the nation during 20 th century. Beginning from the invasion of western forces to the internal war between the Communist Party and Kuo Min Tang, and then to the modern construction of social economy, every incident or change had urged our people to rethink about our life. This was not simply a choice of interest.Instead, it was a redefinition of our life and existence. As a result, the Searching for root and its reconstruction was the key of contemporary literature in China. The Root-searching literature presented, in fact, a unique evolution of the focus of culture waving between “cultivatingpeople” and “building a country”. The purpose was to construct the modernity of a nation. The comparative study of Root-searching literature in Taiwan and Mainland could portrait the modern construction of the cultural psychology of the nation through the literature; observe the unique existence and position of Chinese people and the Chinese literature in the contemporary time in comparison of east and west,traditional and modern, national and international. And this paper will develop on this question in six parts.The First part is an introduction, about the orientation of this research.First of all, the observation of the Root-searching Literature in US and Latin America will present a frame of reference from a far distance.And then rethinking the Root-searching Literature in Mainland is the focus of this paper. The third is to defineRoot-searching Literature in Taiwan, to illustrate the three times of revival about their motivations,content and value orientation. Finally is to state the task of this paperbased on the three above observations: to look for the role and mission of national literature in the modern transition of Chinese literature in the system of the co-existence of the two unique literatures.The second part is to illustrate the most fundamental question of the existence of human being of Root-searching Literature in Mainland and Taiwan: “who am I?” a question of national identity, in the historical background of modern transition of the nation between the tradition andmodernity; to recreate the most fundamental spiritual pain and anxiety in20 century concerning the national existence. This paper will present that the focus of Root-searching Literature in Mainland and Taiwan is to redefine the national identity in the global modernization structure in modern times in China. When a nation needs the self-identification, it means that he encounters the basic cultural crisis: the anxiety, fear and lost about “root”. The Complementariness of these two literatures presented this cultural crisis. In more specific words, the Root-searching Literature in Mainland contained the anxiety of “ugly Chinese”, while the one in Taiwan was about the feeling of losing root and being an “Asian orphan”. Both of them could be the result of lost of root in the modern times.The third part is to discuss the digging of Root-searching Literature in Mainland and Taiwan into the question “where am I from?”, in the struggle of anxiety of losing root and modern lost. This was a more realistic reaction in the modern transition for a nation who was not independent enough in spirit. To put concretely, on the one hand, in the historical transition, Chinese traditional culture could no longer support the individual spirit about the meaning of life as in the past two thousand years of national existence; on the other hand, the imported western culture had not yet integrated into the individual spirit about its existence.In this specific time, the Root-searching Literature in Mainland andTaiwan displayed three dimensions to search for the root: the first one was to look into the traditional culture, mainly the Confucianism, and trying to find the original root of human being. The second was to look for the unique and surpassing character of national traditional culture in its survival, an original existence differing human being to animals and urging the mere “living” towards “surpassing”. “Dao” and “Zen”, as a Chinese way of surpassing, showed a humanly care for the secular lives.They were internal and spiritual surpassing of human being other than the external political idealism; as a unique national spirit culture, they taught people to gain the surpassing composure in the practical dilemma and daily lives, using the attitude of calmness and tolerance. The third one was trying to confirm the life power deep inside the national history and culture, an inherent power of life who was not buried by the history.The fourth part is mainly discussing the characters of Taiwan and Mainland in the searching for the root of the traditional maternal culture:Root-searching Literature in Taiwan presented an identity of “cultural orphan” desiring for the maternal self-sufficiency; the one in Mainland revealed the identity of spoiled children with implied self-loathing. This difference in identity and society cultivated two different kinds of life and culture. Furthermore, this difference showed a unique side for each other in the modern transition of national culture in a complementary way.More specifically, Root-searching literature in Taiwan demonstrated astatus of abandoned children while the individual survivals could not integrated into the maternal body. The embarrassing reality urged the children to return to the maternal self-sufficiency; emphasized the value the inherent and self-sufficient part of maternal culture to maintain the national survival. Only the existence of this part could express inherent identity of the individual, and create the internal spiritual power for modern progress at the same time. Root-searching literature in Mainland was actually a psychological continuance of May the Fourth New Culture, facing the traditional culture. It implied a self-loathing as a spoiled child, looking for newborn and rejecting the maternal body.The writers had a strong sense of modernity and individualism with critical attitude, different from the desire of return to the self-sufficiency and warmness of maternal body of Root-searching Literature in Taiwan.The searching for root at this stage was a return to the maternal body and at the same time a desquamation from the maternal body. It was a desire for the match to the modernity and synchronization between physical and spiritual.The fifth part is about the modern reconstruction of national culture between Root-searching Literature in Taiwan and Mainland in a complementary way. Root-searching Literature in Taiwan, based on the identity of Taiwanese as “abandoned children”, was looking for the national emotional band and symbols to conform its own existence facingthe “westernization”(modernization), and insisting the localization. The particular reality made the Taiwanese strongly recognized the importance of cultural localization towards the survival of individuals. However,this localization was not back to the isolation of traditional culture, nor a monolog away from history. It was a reconstruction of national culture,based on the maternal body of culture, aiming at the modernity.Root-searching Literature in Mainland, based on the identity of Mainland Chinese as “spoiled children”, was trying to modernizing the national culture in the review of the national culture, and synchronizing with the world. As a result, there were few critics of dominant influence of foreign economy and culture, or rethinking about the erosion of lives by pursuing modernity as in Root-searching Literature in Taiwan. The purpose of back to tradition was to avoid the same mistakes in the history,and to make a new cultural choice for the national development, which presented a historical attitude not existed in the Root-searching Literature in Taiwan. The purpose of Root-searching Literature in Mainland to back to tradition was not to confirm the localization as in Taiwan, but to pursue the newborn of tradition in a new period. It was not looking for the inherent and unique character of Chinese people as in Taiwan, but the possibilities in the “root” of Chinese people to catching up the development of modernity in the new times. In this direction, although both the two literatures were returning to the tradition in the appearance,the aims of them were quite different. The one in Taiwan was to criticizing the dominant influence of foreign economy and culture, to recalling the Chinese spirits of nationalist and self-independence. The one in Mainland, on the other hand, was to depart away from the tradition,and walking towards the modernity. The Root-searchingLiterature in Taiwan was focusing on the necessity of localization of culture, while the one in Mainland demonstrated a need for the modernity in the separation from the tradition. These two literatures complementarily presented the conflict and integration of tradition and modernity in 20 th century, and the main line of the development of Chinese historical culture caused the change of culture, the two wings of the modern transition of national culture: localization and modernization.The sixth part is discussing the art theory revealed in the two literatures. Both of them were engaged in the land or country portrait in the general artistic structure, while the theory and content were different.The Root-Searching Literature was covered with “the intense homesickness”, displayed a modern revival of Chinese ancient art as the blue and white porcelain, and demonstrated the internal modernity of Chinese traditional art, general tendency and character of gentleness and exquisiteness. This was also the most charming point of Root-Searching Literature in Taiwan as a cultural center. The wandering lives of the“abandoned” and “orphans” gained the self-sufficiency of culture byreturning to the maternal body. In the general transition of the world, to recover the gentle and exquisite traditional art, was not to copy the poetry on Tang or Song Dynasties, but to revive the capability of national culture’s gentleness to comforting the soul and the correspondent exquisite traditional culture. The language of the Root-Searching Literature is also based on the country color with no “homesickness”, nor the gentle and exquisite traditional art. It was the writing about the closeness, barbarism and backwardness of the “countryside”, and focusing on the folklore or secret history of the local countryside, the local lives mixed with goodness and evilness. It differed from the prevailing ideology and showed the wish to recover the truth of the history, and dug into the human nature and desire. It was trying the recover the original look of human nature behind the official history, and highlighted the modern art to better illustrate the deep side of the tensional national soul. The artistic pursuance of the two literatures was also different. The one in Taiwan was trying to gain the power to resist the evil western culture through the gentle and exquisite traditional art.However, the writers in Mainland was trying to get the Chinese literature away from the politics by using the modern art on original country writing, and merge into the structure of global literature using the national culture. |
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