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In historical retrospect, it is acknowledged by
people everywhere that the progress of human civilization and the development
of science and technology after the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth
century have, by the fifties of the twentieth century, given rise to grave
incidents of environmental pollution in some areas of the world. In Taiwan, as a result of pursuing
modernization since the seventies, there have gradually appeared problems
involving the destruction of nature and pollution of the environment. In the eighties environmental protection
formed a ring of social movements and aroused concern in many writers; the crisis of ecological imbalance between
nature, society, livelihood and environment became the theme of many literary
works. Literary expression about
nature and environment in Taiwan shares the common disquiet of modern writers
around the world concerning the abnormal state of the relationship between
human society and the environment that supports life, and by that common
engagement merits our efforts at translation in the hope that the modern
society of Taiwan and the concerns and literary features of Taiwanese writers
will be better understood abroad. |
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The term “ecology” was first coined by the German
naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) in 1869 as the science for the study of
the relationship of organisms and their environment; it was translated into Japanese as seitaigaku
using Chinese characters (morphemes meaning “study of the conditions of
life”) by the botanist Miyoshi Manabu (1861-1939) in 1895 and appears in this
form in Japanese and correspondingly as shengtaixue in Chinese
today. The study of ecology has
developed into plant ecology and animal ecology, as well as bioecology, which
comprehends plants and animals on the basis of qualities common to both. Whether plants or animals, their ecology
is closely linked with the natural environment, and even more so with human
life. Since the natural environment
supports the growth and activities of all creatures, plant and animal
communities are linked to geographical areas; forests, grasslands, lakes, streams, oceans, mountains and so
on all have a definite influence on human activity and survival. Geographical conditions and regional
distributions of environments on the earth affect the adaptation and survival
of animals and plants, and have a definite bearing on agricultural uses,
social order, and economic structure, resulting in specialized studies such
as animal sociology, animal economics, and the geography of animal
ecology. Environment and society are
the background and stage of human activity, and thus provide the objective
conditions for creative writing. |
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The term “environment” denotes the various
surrounding elements that directly or indirectly affect human life and
development, which generally are divided into two types: natural environment and social
environment. Elements of the natural
environment include air, water, soil, geology, living things (forests,
grasslands, wild plants and animals), and so on. Elements of the social environment include communities
(villages, cities), production (factories, farms, mines, orchards),
transportation and communication,
culture (residences, schools, artifacts, historical sites, scenic
attractions, nature conservation areas), and so on. The close relation between humans and environments consists in
preserving a certain balance in order to maintain human existence and the
continuing development of human societies.
Such a concept exists in traditional Chinese culture, where it is
expressed as the coexistence of tiandao (the way of heaven=nature) and
rendao (the way of man), as well as in the philosophical idea of tianren
heyi (heaven and man combined into one);
it is even implied in the world view of Laozi, “Man follows earth,
earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows ziran (spontaneity, now used as a
translation of ‘nature’).” It is also
seen in the world view of Zhuangzi, “Heaven and earth coexist with me, and
all creatures become one with me.”
To put it in a nutshell, once the balance between man and nature is
broken, human existence suffers from injury, and the development of human
society gives rise to abnormal phenomena.
So-called environmental pollution refers to the degradation of
environmental quality caused by human activities, which is harmful to the
normal existence and development of mankind and other creatures. Such a phenomenon is generally considered
a public hazard, which comprises air pollution, water pollution, and soil
pollution; and the causes may come
from human disasters due to the mishandling of waste gas, waste water, and
waste material. Nature’s own abnormal
changes can also affect human beings’ living environment, for example,
natural disasters like earthquakes, typhoons and hurricanes. |
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In Taiwan, the recurrence of environmental
pollution since the seventies awakened public consciousness of environmental
protection and brought people into the streets in an all-out struggle for the
right of survival. In the eighties,
confronting the destruction of nature, Taiwanese writers seriously reflected
upon the issue of the interdependence of the ecological environment and
living beings, and from that arose the movement for ecological
protection. The nativist and
aboriginal peoples’ movements in the nineties turned the attention of the
Taiwanese people and writers to concern with the island under their feet and
the changes in its natural environments.
Nature became the moral import for many Taiwanese authors in their
creative writing, and there appeared the so-called shengtai zuojia
(ecology writer) and the genre of ziran xiezuo (nature writing). A modern writer’s observation of nature is
often infused with reflection on history and civilization, gives thought to
the continuation of human existence, and explores the dignity of the land and
nature, order and ethics; it
distinguishes itself from the eulogy of nature and the universe seen in the
classical literature and the traditional literati’s singing of pastoral
scenery. In November 1997, the Chung-wai
Literary Monthly (No. 306) published a special issue, “Ziran
bianzouqu: shengtai guanhuai yu
shanshui xiezuo” (Nature Variations:
Ecological Concerns and Landscape Description), but these studies
focused on Western literature and Chinese classical literature. In the following month, December 1997, Chung-wai
Literary Monthly (No. 307) published a special issue, “Shengtai, shuxie,
houxiandai” (Ecology, Writing, and Postmodernism), which focused on the study
of ecology in American literature, and introduced the contemporary French
feminist scholar and philosopher Luce Irigaray’s ecological feminism and
contemporary writings on nature and ecology in Taiwan. The author Professor C. Y. Chu of National
Chung Hsing University maintains that writing on nature differs somewhat from
writing on ecology; the former
emphasizes description in praise of nature’s beauty and represents natural
landscape, while the latter emphasizes exploring the relation between ecology and human beings. |
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In Taiwan the earliest writing to show an
interest in the ecological environment was a work coauthored by Han Han and
Ma Yigong, pioneers of ecological protection, entitled Women zhiyou yige
diqiu (We Have Only One Earth), published in 1983, which recorded the
spectacle of destruction inflicted on plants and animals by the denudation of
wilderness and unrestricted hunting everywhere in Taiwan and made an appeal
for protection. After more than a
decade, interest in the natural environment and writings on ecology has
increased among authors and readers, and there have been several regularly
published journals, such as Taiwan shanyue (Taiwan Mountains), Yuan
(Fountainhead), Lü shenghuo (Green Life), Dadi (Good Earth),
and Daziran (Nature); and at
the same time there have been several books and publishers exclusively
dedicated to nature and ecology in Taiwan.
Examples mentioned in Professor Chu’s article are Taiwan shangshu
qingbao (Information on Appreciation of Trees in Taiwan) (1994), which
provides guidance for recognizing tree varieties and their features in the
surrounding environments of daily life, such as certain sections of streets,
suburbs, mountain areas, botanic gardens, parks, and campuses; Dadi youqing—Taiwan zhiwu de siji
(Affections of the Earth—the Four Seasons of Flora in Taiwan) (1995), which
introduces the interdependent relation of the native plants with weather and
environments; and Taiwan
hongshulin ziran daoyou (A Guide to the Red Woods in Taiwan) (1995),
which explains the special ecosystem of various organisms in the red woods
marshland where the river and the seacoast join. Liu Kexiang is an ecology writer known for his writings on the
observation of nature and his description of environmental changes affecting
fauna and flora. (We translated two
of his essays in the 4th and 5th issues of this
journal.) He has published numerous
books, from land exploration and bird observation in his early period to
travelogue and writings on nature, including Toukui ziran—xin huwai
shenghuo zhinan (Peeping into Nature—a New Guide for Outdoor Life)
(1996), which uses multimedia, such as photographs, pictures from illustrated
biologies, writings, and even soundtracks to describe his travels for
observing nature, share his enjoyment of the outdoors, and record at the same
time many diminishing natural landscapes.
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For specialized publishers, there is Chenxing (Morning Star), which
publishes a series called “Ziran gongyuan” (Nature Park), which includes
“Writings on Nature,” “Travel Records,” “Nature Reportage,” “Environmental
Protection Reportage,” and “Environmental Protection Literature.” The main authors, in addition to Liu
Kexiang, are nature writer Wang Jiaxiang, bird observer Chen Juan, bird
photographer Wu Yonghua, ecologist Chen Yufeng, expert in mountain climbing
and ancient trails Yang Nanjun, ocean writer Liao Hung-chi, and ocean pilgrim
and aboriginal writer Syama Rapongan.
As to studies, since 1998, we see more and more M.A. theses on nature
writings from the graduate institutes at National Chengchi University,
National Central University, and National Taiwan Normal University. In 1998, in response to the International
Year of the Ocean sponsored by the United Nations, National Sun-Yat Sen
University convened an international conference on the ocean and literature,
which includes several papers dealing with the subject of the ocean and
discussing ocean imagery in the modern poetry of Taiwan. |
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Among the selections contributing
to the theme of this issue, the eminent writer Hwang Chun-ming’s recent work Fangsheng
(Set Free) complemented by Professor Howard Goldblatt’s excellent
translation, deserves our special recommendation as a guarantee of the
quality of selection and translation for this journal. Professor Goldblatt’s previous
translations of Hwang Chun-ming’s short stories will be published by Columbia
University Press next year, under the title of The Taste of Apples. Professor Goldblatt’s other translation from
Taiwan literature, Chu T’ien-wen’s Huangren shouji (Notes of a Desolate Man)
was selected as Translation of the Year by the American Translators
Association, the first Taiwanese as well as Chinese work so honored. The ocean writer Liao Hung-chi writes only
of people, events and sentiments of the ocean. His Sanyue sanyangsan (March Madness) won the first
prize of the Wu Zhuoliu Literature Award for Fiction in 1996, and is
brilliantly rendered by the translation of Emeritus Professor William Lyell
of Stanford University. Lin Wen-yi’s
essay deals with the changes of social environment in Taiwan, especially the
neglect and destruction of historical relics. Nishikawa Mitsuru’s Sairyûki (The Sulfur Expedition) is
continued from the last issue. On
September 21 of last year an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the
Richter scale occurred in Taiwan with a world-shocking toll of
casualties. According to the
newspapers, more than two thousand people died, nearly ten thousand were
wounded, and over one hundred thousand people became homeless, sleeping in
the open or on the streets. The Li
poetry magazine published a special issue (No. 214), “September 21 Big Earthquake in Taiwan”
(December 1999), which is the source of the selected poems introduced here to
reflect the theme of this issue on the one hand; and on the other to leave
some record of the disaster Taiwan has encountered and give expression of our
condolence for the victims. Regarding
the selection of the items, we are thankful to Professor Jenn-shann Jack Lin
of the University of Alberta, Canada, for his thoughtful recommendation of
Professor Chia Fu-shiang’s essay, and to Professor Xu Junya of National
Taiwan Normal University for her discerning recommendation of Professor Chen
Sihe’s study on the subject of the ocean in Taiwan literature of the
nineties. |
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Finally, we would like say a few words concerning
some inconsistency in the
romanization of proper names and personal names used in the past
issues. From the first issue of 1996
to the fifth issue published in June of 1999, we used the Wade-Giles
system, which had been, until
recently, almost exclusively used in the American academic world. In July of 1999, according to newspapers,
the government authorities in Taiwan decided to adopt the Hanyu pinyin
system. We accordingly announced in
the foreword of the sixth issue (December, 1999) the following decision: “In July of this year the Executive Yuan of the
Republic of China in Taiwan officially adopted the Hanyu pinyin system of
transcription, which has been widely used in the world, and accordingly we
will also use pinyin for transcribing Chinese terms except for some
well-known proper names.”
Unexpectedly, as it turned out, the news was simply about the
recommendation submitted by the Ministry of Education to the Executive Yuan,
and for unknown reasons, the recommendation was not officially approved. This last September the issue about which
romanization system to adopt revived in the news and remains pending to date. In view of the fact that this journal is
an academic publication with English-speaking people as the target readers,
that academic publications in the United States since the eighties have
gradually switched to the Hanyu pinyin, and that the Library of Congress as
the ultimate source for cataloguing books and publications in Chinese has
officially shifted to pinyin as the standard, this journal will continue to
use pinyin for transcribing Chinese terms in general and Chinese names used
in the fiction. As for the English
transcription of authors’ names, we will follow the author’s preference
regarding which romanization system is to be used, what language Mandarin or
other the pronunciation of the names is to be based on, and whether the
author has adopted an English given name or not. In principle we will treat authors’ names with due deference
and try to be consistent. Hereafter
for those authors translated in the journal, their names will be based on the
spellings provided by the named authors in the form of “Author’s Consent to English
Translation;” otherwise they will be
transcribed in the pinyin system. We
will appreciate the cooperation and understanding of the authors and readers
concerned. |
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