A Research on the Reception of Chiung Yao's Romances

• Main Authors: Ching-Yi Hsieh, 謝靜宜
• Other Authors: Chun-Jung Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/80859953156151140547

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 台灣文化研究所 === 98 === Chiung Yao was once recognized as the most shining star of popular literature in Taiwan, an important indicator of contemporary popular literary works. Since she published her first novel, Outside the Window, in 1963, Chiung Yao has been always a controversial name to scholars and intellectuals. Nevertheless, she never stopped her creation and her writing career has lasted for more than 40 years until now. Chiung Yao is a popular name of novelist not only in Taiwan, but in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and other resident areas of Chinese people. Her works can be found even as far as Europe. As for the ‘phenomenon of Chiung Yao,’ it is composed by the popularity of her long-lasting novels and various multimedia products like movies and TV series and shows a close relationship with readers’ acceptance and response. In this case, the study is aimed at discussing how different readers, such as literature critics, workers in the movie/TV industry, and general readers, evaluate and accept the literary works of Chiung Yao from the perspective of aesthetics. The study results are stated as follows: I. From criticize to research, critics learn to accept Chiung Yao’s works In the past, literature critics used to criticize her works strongly, suggesting they were pessimistic and unhealthy, which may pollute readers’ mind. After the 1980s, critics started to recognize their social and psychological function and to conduct research as well as discussion concerning Chiung Yao’s works. On the other hand, mainland critics have both positive and negative remarks on her works; the negative argument is quite similar to that of Taiwanese critics, while the positive one is mostly concerning the recognition of her style and skills being influenced by Chinese culture. They include her novels into the scope of literature history. So far, there are still many other researchers conducting studies and criticism from various perspectives with different theories. II. A combination of commerce and arts from the viewpoint of workers in the movie/TV industry Since Chiung Yao’s novels are within the scope of popular literature, they can be profitable to workers in the movie/TV industry as productive goods. However, they still try to be creative in the process of transforming her works into products based on their business concern. On the other hand, play workers choose her works out of pure intention of demonstrating arts. They can always discover to exert more hidden connotation in her works so as to transform them into their own personal creation and to convey their ideas of romance or other issues of life. III. Readers accept Chiung Yao’s works because of their constant care for love It is easy to tell that before the 1980s in Taiwan, readers had a craze for Chiung Yao’s works since both the novels and the box office of movies based on them performed well. After the 1980s, the reason why her novels are able to be reproduced to reappear in a variety of ways is that there is always a group of loyal readers supporting her works. Their acceptance, support, encouragement, and feedback have inspired Chiung Yao to create more literary works. This group of readers used to convey their inner affection concerning their interpretation of the novels, their own love stories, and life experience to the writer to express how they have the same feelings as her. It is the eternal issue, love, which always keeps readers caring for Chiung Yao’s literary works.