Treatment of Classical Literature in China and Taiwan

It is perhaps unsurprising that there are marked differences within Taiwan and China not just in politics and society, but also in their treatment of classical literature.

In post-1949 China, gentry literature of the country's feudal past was sometimes renounced for ideological reasons. Numerous political idioms designed to mobilize the masses also made their way into and were added to the literary vocabulary.

In contrast, the prose-style in post-1949 Taiwan tended to be more literary, retaining many more archaic expressions and allusions to classical literature.

According to Murray A. Rubinstein, the Taiwan phenomenon is "a direct result of the cultural policy of the Nationalist government, which promoted traditional culture partly as a means to assert its own legitimacy as a Chinese government." (Murray A. Rubinstein, Taiwan A New History, East Gate 1999)

Hence, Rubinstein added, the selection of works by such writers as Hsu Chih-mo (Xu Zhimo, 徐志摩) and Chu Tzu-ching (Zhu Ziqing, 朱自清) contributed to the popularity of the "former's exotic, flamboyant, European-flavored aestheticism and the latter's genteel, refined, traditional Chinese sensibility."

Well said.