Is Taiwanese Literature Considered "National Literature"?

Some discussions within the Taiwanese literary community may sound like hair-splitting, but they are invariably tied with the island's history and past influences.

Such as whether Taiwanese literature should be considered "national literature."

According to Yvonne Chang who teaches at University of Texas at Austin, "Taiwanese literature" has been gaining legitimacy in the public sphere since the mid-1990s, and many who earlier harbored reservations about the term are also claiming it as their own, and redefining it in very different ways. (Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, Literary Culture in Taiwan: Martial Law to Market Law, Columbia University Press 2004)

But others have countered by asking if works written by Taiwanese writers during the colonial period should be seen as Chinese, Taiwanese, or Japanese. They also asked if mainlanders in Taiwan - those who settled on the island since 1949 - could be considered "local writers", since some of them insisted on calling themselves "Chinese writers."

So you see, hair-splitting is not just something that is confined to politicians and academics, especially, or particularly, in Taiwan.