Taiwanese Millennial Writers and Their Writings after the Sunflower Movement

Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Stockholm welcomes to this lecture by Prof. Dr. Min-xu Zhan, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. The lecture is part of the Digital lecture series – TAIWAN’s literary and visual cultures.

Abstract:

Due to dissatisfaction with the Taiwanese government’s trade policy, the younger generation initiated the Sunflower Movement and occupied the Legislative Yuan for a month in 2014. Known as the largest “civil disobedience” movement in Taiwan since the 1980s, the Sunflower movement influences Taiwanese society at large, including promoting the revival of civil society, forming the “third force” political parties, and even inspiring protests in Hong Kong and Japan. However, the impact of the Sunflower movement on Taiwanese millennial writers also deserves attention. The term “Taiwanese millennial writer” refers to the generation of Taiwanese writers who were born between 1980 and 2000. This generation grew up in an era of rising awareness of Taiwan’s localization, a frequent flow of transnational cultures, and rapid development of digital media. This background has created a unique creative concern and aesthetic expression of literature that differ from the previous generation. This talk seeks to identify the significant features of Taiwanese millennial writers and examine the impact of Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement on this new generation of writers.

Find more info here.