The thesis mainly discusses the methods and materials used for constructing the history of Taiwan literature. Through the bilingual trained "second-generation literati", the thesis presents an argument for the current statement on the encounter of “break” and the loss of “heritage" in the history of Taiwan literature in the early postwar period. The argument redefines the literature history in the early postwar period and verifies that the history of Taiwan literature has not ever "broken" nor lost its "heritage.”
If the scope of so-called literary heritage not only refers to the exclusive literary creation of anti-empire and anti-feudal after the New Literature Movement in the 1920s, but also includes a wide range of cultural works by literati, such as historical data research and document collation, in consideration of the peculiarities of Japanese literary circles in the colonial status. Thus, the current view of "fracture" or "break" in the literature history should be amended. A solid example is the so-called cross-era literati, as known as "second-generation literati," participated in varied activities from prewar to postwar period. They are Yang Yun-Ping, Huang Te-Shih, Wang Shih-Lang, Liao Han-Chen, Wu Hsin-Jung, Kuo Shui-Tan. The thesis found that there were some overlaps and coincidences in their identity, knowledge construction, literary creation, literary activities, and cultural work. For example, they were all born around 1910 with Chinese literacy; received modern education in the 1920s and participated in the New Literature Movement; joined the "Taiwanese Cultural Association" in 1934 and contributed to the matured Taiwan literary circles; and devoted themselves to folklore surveys and folk literature writing, and in the meantime responded to the requirements of the wartime system while Japan was promoting the imperialism and the liberty of literature development was severely restricted after 1973.
From the early postwar period to the 1960s, the second generation literati kept on with their writing. When facing the prewar literary heritage during the time of "de-Japanization," they entered the central and local documentation commission and then put the "heritage" in the "general chronicles (tonzhi)" and "local chronicles (fangzhi)." Yang Yun-Ping et al. all have the following traits, which can be fully used as the research subjects in this thesis: one is all of them had crossed the “break,” which caused by the twice language changes in the development of Taiwan's literature history, and become the cohesion; the other is the content to fill the break is folk literature, folk customs investigation, document collection and transformed children’s literature, and all of them had made great achievements in these fields.
The time period covered in the thesis is from the 1910s to the 1960s, and is discussed in five aspects below: the literary cultivation of cross-era literati, the literary creation and participation of literary debates in the 1930s, the literary responses to the wartime system in the 1940s, and the activities and roles playing in the early postwar period, and the “Documentation Commission" and other activities in the 1950s. The chapters are arranged in chronological order, for the purpose of showing literati’s learning and the practice of literary action, the connection between thoughts and works, and the issues addressed in the literary history such as the position of controversial thoughts in the vernacular movement, the relation between "popularization of literature and art" and folk literature, and the connection between policies and literature in the early postwar period. Finally, the thesis verifies that all the six literati, who had crossed the era and language, continued to sustain the intellectual heritage and literary development of the Japanese colonial period. In the transition of "imperialization", "de-Japaneseization", and "re-sinicization", they talked with the colonial government and intellectuals, arguing that even "sinicization" was inevitable after the war, Taiwan literature still had the groundwork and energy to connect with the world even in the multi-layered history. Moreover, the six literati had made up the “break” through folk caring and historical writing, thus the literature history has never broken.