The imagination of Lai He and Lü Heruo

The topic of this chapter is Lai He and Lü Heruo, the architects of the vernacular language and literature and champions of revolutionary change. The two members of the Taiwanese elite created a hybrid vernacular imaginary that served as the site for the negotiation of identity. Lai He embraced a Chinese cultural identity and used Chinese to write, thus personifying the long route to Chinese. Lü Heruo pursued a vision that was socialist and iconoclastic and used Japanese to write. He personifies the short route to Japanese. Both authored stories about the benighted cultural tradition, the impact of colonial policies, and the difficult lives of the colonized population. Motifs of anxiety and ambivalence situate their works within the discourses of colonialism. The chapter examines their intervention into the benighted traditionalism and Japanese colonial rule.