Ian Rowen

Introduction

Ian Rowen is Associate Professor in the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages, and Literature at National Taiwan Normal University. He previously served as Assistant Professor of Sociology, Geography and Urban Planning at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His book, One China, Many Taiwans: The Geopolitics of Cross-Strait Tourism was published by Cornell University Press in January 2023. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and proficient in Bahasa Indonesia, he is editor of Transitions in Taiwan: Stories of the White Terror (Cambria Press, 2021). Ian’s previous translations credits include such award-winning films as ‘Splendid Float’ and ‘Spider Lilies’, directed by Zero Chou.

Resident planning

Ian will use his time in the residency to craft the introduction to a forthcoming co-edited volume of literature in translation, A Taiwanese Eco-Literature Reader, to be published by Columbia University Press. The introduction will provide readers with context about the cultural and sociopolitical milieu in which eco-literature developed in Taiwan, as well as introduce the specific writers and pieces included in this landmark volume. This work showcases a variety of environmental and ecologically-themed contemporary literature produced by Taiwanese authors from the mid-1990s onward. After the lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan in 1987, the ensuing democratic transition established fertile ground for different literary genres, ideologies, and movements to grow. Eco-literature joined the fray at this critical moment and stands today as one of the most prominent genres in the contemporary literary landscape of Taiwan. Taiwan’s eco-literature has gained it attention not only an epicenter of eco-criticism, but also as a “critical zone” for examining ecological crisis. Taiwan’s role is compounded by its fraught position on multiple lines of global fracture, including an emergent geopolitical contest between China and the US, and the ontological rifts between indigenous cosmologies and techno-capitalist ideology. In light of these local and global entanglements, this project places Taiwan’s works and worlds in conversation in four sections: Indigenous eco-writing, oceanic hybridity, ecological sci-fi, and indigenous speculative fiction. The introduction will traverse these landscapes, illuminating Taiwan’s past and pointing to its future, telling tales hopeful, fraught, sensuous, and inspiring.