Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts Taiwan’s Modern Political History through the Lens of Ordinary Lives
Taiwan’s Modern Political History through the Lens of Ordinary Lives

Taiwan’s Modern Political History through the Lens of Ordinary Lives

Abstract

Green Island: A Novel, written by Shawna Yang Ryan, who teaches creative writing at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is a welcome treatment of one of the least written about periods in Taiwan’s modern history. The book’s title is a play on words. Green Island lies off Taiwan’s east coast, 21 miles from the city of Taitung. Perhaps more important, however, is its metaphorical meaning: during the martial law-era, 1949-1987, the island was used as a prison under the single-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang (KMT).

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