The disappearing cultural memory of Tainan City

• Main Authors: Mei-ling Lin, 林美伶
• Other Authors: Lai-Shin Kong
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73456556301238969917

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 中國文學系碩士在職專班 === 96 === In this paper, the researcher takes the Tainan City as a research region. She discusses how the city nourished the writers, and explores how the writers wrote and formed their cultural memory of Tainan City. Through the texts, the writers unfolds their spatial experience, spatial portrayal, self-consciousness and their national identification to their readers. The objects of the study are the three writers who were born in Tainan City -- Sheu Dih-shan (1893－1941 ), Ye Shi-tao ( 1925－) and Chen Ye ( 1959－) .Their works are the research text. In the first part of the study, the researcher discusses the connection of the writers and the birth place, Tainan City. She depicts the writers’ movement and position in the city. They wrote to express their sense of place and their subjective and emotional dependency on the city. Therefore, "Tainan City" is no longer just a geographic name but a significant place. The writers also have the emotional relation with the people who have memory of Tainan City. Sheu Dih-shan’s impressions of Tainan city are that his father, Sheu Nan- ying, loved his motherland and homeland, and the female elders in his family worked hard and silently in the folk custom activities. His admiration of national hero Zheng Cheng-gong turned into the concern about trend of time and destiny of the century. Ye Shi-tao, a native of Tainan City, started from depicting the affluent life in "Grand View Garden" and romantic reverie in the literary world, but his writing changed into the description of the real world. He was hit by power conversion and the decline of his family. He was involved in political events and even sent to prison. By means of writing history, he found the position of Taiwan and himself. He defined Taiwan and Tainan through recording the appearance of old Tainan City. Chen Ye , who was born with a deformed look, is added too many legends and suffers the decline of her family. She endures false accusation and family hatred all her life. Only through writing can she obtain redemption. Loss and sadness of youth and the heart-rending history of her family, were depicted and spread over her works. Chen Ye’s memory of Chen family’s residence, Shi Lai Buddhist nunnery, bawdyhouse and the Tainan Canal was profound and unique. The findings and conclusion are presented and discussed in the final part of this study.