hsiang-t’u

The term "hsiang-t'u" refers to a regional writing style that emerged in Taiwan in the late 1960s. This literary genre focused on the Taiwanese countryside as its setting for fiction and poetry. The works within this style effectively captured the significant social and psychological impacts of Taiwan's transition from a rural to an urban society. A representative example of this nativist school is Huang Ch'un-ming's Ni-szu i-chih lao-mao (1980; The Drowning of an Old Cat). This movement later evolved into a more nationalistic literature that reflected the prevailing political climate in Taiwan.1