Columbia University Press Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader

"After the lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan, post-1987 democratic transition established fertile ground for different literary genres, ideologies, and movements to grow. Eco-literature developed at this critical moment and today stands out as one of the most prominent genres in the contemporary literary landscape of Taiwan. This anthology selects a range of important authors from different intellectual, ethnic, and linguistic milieus whose fictional or nonfictional works greatly contribute to the field. In this polyphone and heterogenous context, their works collectively form a uniquely Taiwanese ecoheterotopia-a cultural and discursive ecology that evolves, contradicts, and transforms itself. This anthology is divided into four sections by genres and themes. The first section focuses on indigenous eco-writings, including an excerpt from Syaman Rapongan's Eyes of the Sky. Their literary (re-)presentations of Paiwan and Tao cosmologies challenge conventional understandings of the natural environments (e.g., shifting definitions and boundaries between mountains and seas). The second section explores the themes of human-animal relations and interspecies communications that have long occupied the central ground of ecocritical debates. The third section turnstoward the future, and attempts to grasp the threat of anthropogenic climate change and environmental destruction. This section introduces the emerging genre of eco sci-fi (also known as cli-fi) or speculative fiction with a cyber-punk flair, including Chi Ta-wei's Membranes. The final section points toward new directions in the eco-writing of Taiwan, including short stories by Wu Ming-yi and Chiu Charng-ting, which together suggest a new genre of "indigenous speculative writings," uniquely combining indigenous ontologies with speculative realism"-- Provided by publisher. An Indigenous hunter laments the decline in the flying squirrel population and reflects on how animals perceive the world. In a drought-stricken cyberpunk anytown, kids revolt against the grown-ups only to face off with stray dogs over water. During late-night diving sessions, a researcher encounters a mysterious group of ocean-dwelling people with gills. In an overpopulated future, marrying an AI spouse will raise a human’s credit score. A man follows the trail of an extinct leopard, seeking to unravel a metafictional mystery left behind by his late wife.This anthology showcases cutting-edge works on ecological themes by essential and emerging Taiwanese authors, revealing the vitality of their engagements with environmental crises. Taiwan is a biodiversity hotspot and geopolitical flashpoint, home to both Indigenous peoples and settlers. The pieces collected in A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader give voice to this human and more-than-human diversity, telling tales that are disturbing yet hopeful, serious yet sensuous, speculative yet grounded, down to earth yet spanning the seas. They span Indigenous eco-writing, oceanic hybrid narratives, ecological sci-fi, and speculative Indigenous fiction. Together, these stories navigate the landscapes of Taiwanese ecoliterature, illuminating its past and pointing toward its future. This anthology showcases cutting-edge works on ecological themes by essential and emerging Taiwanese authors, revealing the vitality of their engagements with environmental crises. Autorid: Ian Rowen, Ti-han Chang, Darryl Sterk