The Soldier-Writer, the Expatriate, and Cold War Modernism in Taiwan: Freedom in the Trenches argues that what appeared to be a "genesis" of new literature engendered by the modernist movement in postwar Taiwan was made possible only through the "splendid isolation" within the Cold War world order sustaining the bubble in which "Free China" lived on borrowed time. The book explores the trenches of freedom in whose confines the soldier-poets' were surrealistically acquiesced to roam free under the aegis of "pure literature" and the buffer zone created by the US presence in Taiwan—and the modernists' expatriate writing from America—that aided their moderated deviance from the official line. It critically examines the anti-establishment character and gesture in the movement phase in terms of its entanglements with the state apparatus and the US-aided literary establishment. Taiwan's modernists counterbalance their retrospectively perceived excess and nuanced forms of exit with a series of spiritual as well as actual returns, upon which earlier traditionalist undercurrents would surface. This modernism's mixed legacies, with its aesthetic avant-gardism marrying politically moderate or conservative penchants, date back to its bifurcated mode of existence and operation of separating the realm of the aesthetic from everything else in life during the Cold War.

A working paper related to this project has been delivered in a presentationat the workshop on “What is Global CriticalTheory?” (an online event) organized by the Goldsmiths Center for Philosophyand Critical Thought, University of London, on December 14, 2023. The outcomeof the research has been organized in a paper format for journal submissionconsideration. In addition, the project has been incorporated into thetheoretical framework of a potential book project.  

A working paper based on this project was presented in an academicinternational conference held by Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea onJune 9, 2023. The outcome of the research has been organized in a paper format for journalsubmission consideration. In addition to this, the project has beenincorporated into the theoretical framework of a potential book project. 

This is a project for the academic year from Apr 01 2021 to Mar 31 2022.  During this period, I published a book on postcolonial studies that is related to one of the topics covered by this project--postcolonial resistance.Publication information about my book can be found at the link below:https://cup.columbia.ed/book/the-indivisible-globe-the-indissoluble-nation/9783838215242 Li-Chun Hsiao, The Indivisible Globe, the Indissoluble Nation: Universality, Postcoloniality, and Nationalism in the Age of Globalization.  Stuttgart: ibidem Press, distributed by Columbia University Press, 2021.

The project is in the stage of wrapping up the writing to be submitted for conference presentation consideration.  The draft received positive feedbacks from the scholars attended in an on-line workshop. The positive comments have further facilitated the writing moving forward in a smooth pace.   

With the support of this grant, the project has produced one journal article that has been accepted and published by a renowned journal, CRITICAL ARTS-SOUTH-NORTH CULTURAL AND MEDIA STUDIES with Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI). The publication has acknowledged this financial support.