Chen Yingzhen, former chairman and writer of Taiwan's China Unification Alliance, died of illness in Beijing on November 22 at the age of 79. Chen Yingzhen is a banner of Taiwan's cultural circles, and he has opened up a new path for Taiwanese vernacular literature with rational and critical brushstrokes; he has always stood on the front line of anti-national separatism throughout his life, uniting a large number of "reunification" writers. Wang Xiaobo, vice chairman of the China Unification Alliance and professor at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan, was very emotional about Chen Yingzhen's inability to be cared for by Taiwan in his later years and his death on the mainland, telling the Global People reporter: "Chen Yingzhen agrees with the ideals of the Communist Party, so the KUOMINTANG regards him as a Communist Party, and the DPP considers him a 'reunification faction.'" ”
Creating a China Unification Alliance to Fight "Taiwan Independence"
The last time Wang Xiaobo met Chen Yingzhen was 10 years ago, when he attended the "Symposium to Commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Taiwan's Restoration" at the Great Hall of the People. Yingzhen also spoke at the symposium, but when he came out, he could not stand up after a stroke and was rushed to the hospital. His last words were, 'I'm relieved to leave taiwan', and I haven't met him since. In the following 10 years, Chen Yingzhen lived in Beijing for health reasons and never returned to Taiwan.
Wang Xiaobo and Chen Yingzhen met while contributing to the controversial critical magazine Xia Chao. In 1979, the magazine was banned by the Kuomintang authorities, "The Summer Tide was gone, and the authors, readers, and political victims of the White Terror established the Summer Tide Federation." Later, Chen Yingzhen and Mr. Hu Qiuyuan of the "China Magazine" hoped to set up a reunification organization , the "China Unification Alliance, " under the circumstance of the rising tendency toward 'Taiwan independence,' and the Xia Chao Federation also joined the Unification League. Wang Xiaobo said.
After 1987, with the lifting of martial law, Taiwan's political situation underwent earth-shaking changes. The Lee Teng-hui authorities acquiesced in the return of overseas "Taiwan independence alliances" to Taiwan for development, and "Taiwan independence" also established a political party, namely, the Democratic Progressive Party. At that time, the two sides of the strait were already able to travel back and forth, and the Taiwanese who had visited the mainland were shocked by the progress and development of the mainland, and Chen Yingzhen was also very touched: "In the past, the theory of reunification was only monopolized by the Kuomintang alone. The situation made us feel the need to organize a political group that was non-governmental, not official, and advocated national unity. ”
In April 1988, Chen Yingzhen was elected chairman of the China Unification Alliance, to which he said: "I didn't like to be the head. When the alliance was founded, they proposed that I be the chairman, and I refused. Later, Mr. Hu Qiuyuan said a sentence, and my heart was shocked. He said: If the movement to promote China's reunification in Taiwan were to be done by a more prestigious person from this province, it would be far more meaningful than a person from another province. As soon as I thought it was the right thing to say, I stopped prevaricating. ”
The members of the China Unification Alliance are roughly divided into three parts, including former political prisoners of the left who have been released, young "leftists" of the "Xia Chao" system, and patriotic intellectuals from other provinces centered on Mr. Hu Qiuyuan, who mainly carry out activities to counter "Taiwan independence." "They held a 'I am Taiwanese' march, and we launched a 'I am a Chinese' march, sometimes going to the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan to protest some of their remarks." Chen Yingzhen said.
Chen Yingzhen (left) participated in a demonstration in 1991.
"During the reunification period, we promoted cross-strait three links and direct shipping, and also held demonstrations and gave speeches to the masses, telling the masses why we advocate China's reunification and what benefits China's reunification has for the people of Taiwan. Chen Yingzhen participated in these tasks. Wang Xiaobo introduced.
Influenced by Lu Xun's works for a lifetime
Chen Yingzhen's strong identification with the country is inseparable from his own suffering. Chen Yingzhen was born in 1937 in Hsinchu, Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, his real name was Chen Yingshan, and when he was two years old, he changed his name to Chen Yongshan after inheriting his uncle. "Chen Yingzhen," the name of his twin brother who died young, said, "Under this pseudonym, it was as if we were living together."
In 1945, Japanese colonial rule ended and Taiwan was restored, but as the Kuomintang army retreated to Taiwan, the short-lived joy was soon replaced by an atmosphere of terror. In 1947, the "228" incident, the Kuomintang government created a bloody storm. At the train station in Yingge Town, Chen Yingzhen, who was only 10 years old, saw a merchant from another province knocked to the ground by locals, his clothes and shoes stained with blood.
Growing up in the white terror, Chen Yingzhen felt more and more the solemnity and sadness of reality. Around the sixth grade of elementary school, he read Lu Xun's "Scream" and was influenced throughout his life. Chen Yingzhen said: "For decades, whenever I met Chinese who had lost their sense of national identity, Chinese who held a sense of ignorance and contempt and shame about China's suffering and backwardness, and even met Chinese who fantasized about preferring to be a subject of other countries in order to seek a so-called 'democratic and prosperous life', in addition to pain and pity, I had deep gratitude - thanks to the novel of my youth, which made me a patriot full of confidence, understanding, but at the same time not agitated." ”
In 1957, Chen Yingzhen was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences (now Tamkang University). Two years later, he published his first novel, Noodle Stall, in Penhui magazine. Chen Yingzhen was really afraid of friends, the founder of "Bihui" magazine, Taiwanese writer Wei Tianqiao introduced the situation to the "Global People" reporter: "Yongshan and I studied in the same high school, he was one level lower than me, I heard that he wrote well, so I took the manuscript and published it, the first one was "Noodle Stall", which was very moving, and everyone liked it after publication. So he brought "My Brother Yasuo", which tells the story of the protagonist Yasuo who is full of social ideals and commits suicide because he can't stand the blow of reality, a bit like Goethe's "The Troubles of Young Werther". At first, Chen Yingzhen was very unconfident, and handed "My Brother Kang Xiong" to Ye Jiaying, his Chinese teacher at the time, and when he retrieved the manuscript, he found that Mr. Ye had made all the changes in red characters. Chen Yingzhen said: "Professor Ye's Zhu Pi was serious and serious, and he did not regard my manuscript as a childish work for literary youth to show off their literary and artistic style, but said some words of appreciation and encouragement that could not be taken seriously by others. ”
"My Brother Kang Xiong" caused a huge response, and the writer Sanmao once said: "I have read this novel more than a hundred times, and I cry every time I read it." "His brushwork is fresh and moving, and the words are repeated over and over again, which makes people feel that they are constantly lingering and lingering." He also wrote out the common feelings of the struggling youth in Taiwan at that time, turning them into the common voice of everyone, making people feel that they had found a common friend. Wei Tianxiao said.
In 1964, Chen Yingzhen published the novel "The General Clan", which first touched on the theme of "mainlanders in Taiwan", and the work received widespread attention as soon as it was published. From 1963 to 1967, Chen Yingzhen also published works such as "Documents", "A Green Migratory Bird", "The Sun Shining on Vultures", and "The First Errand". "Later, we all became soldiers, and the Pen Hui also stopped, and after a few years, we all got together to run the Literary Quarterly, and the works paid more attention to the lives of small citizens. Because of her experience in the military and foreign companies, Yingzhen also has a deeper understanding of Taiwanese society, and in addition to romance, the realistic atmosphere is also stronger. Wei Tianxiao said.
During this period, Chen Yingzhen also organized a book club with colleagues to study the "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" and books on the Chinese revolution. In 1965, Chen Yingzhen also translated the Communist Manifesto for the reading club. Based on the book club, Chen Yingzhen established the leftist organization "Taiwan Democratic League", which also suffered from disaster. In May 1968, Chen Yingzhen and his brother were betrayed by a detective disguised as a journalist and arrested on charges of "organizing a gathering to read left-wing books such as Marxist-Leninist Communist Party and Lu Xun and propaganda for the Communist Party." After interrogation, Chen Yingzhen and others were sent to Jingmei's military justice department. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Wei Tianxiao took the moon cake to visit the prison, and when they met, he also tried his best to comfort Chen Yingzhen: "Don't be discouraged, you haven't done anything!" But by the end of the year, Chen Yingzhen had been sentenced to ten years in prison for rebellion. In 1970, Chen Yingzhen was transferred to Taitung Taiyuan Prison and then to the Green Island concentration camp.
"Chen Yingzhen of Literature Becomes Chen Yingzhen of Politics"
During his days in prison, when Chen Yingzhen's father visited him for the first time, he left him with the following words: "Child, after that, you must remember well: First, you are a child of God; second, you are a child of China; and then, you are my child." I send these words to you, put them in the bag of the detention brigade, think of them as people, and treat the world accordingly..." Chen Yingzhen listened to his father's instructions with tears in his eyes and encouraged him for a lifetime.
Chen Yingzhen was imprisoned for seven years, and was not released early until The 100-day amnesty for Chiang Kai-shek's death in July 1975. "He met many leftists and political prisoners in prison in the 1950s, and he really came into contact with political prisoners who came into contact with the Communist Party, which had a considerable impact on him, so I say that he was the first generation of intellectuals who identified with the Communist Party after the White Terror." He has nothing to do with the Communist Party, he is naturally red. Wang Xiaobo said.
After his release from prison, Chen Yingzhen worked at the Us-based Windsor Pharmaceutical Factory, but still did not change his mind, and continued to engage in writing as a "unified faction that dies without repentance". In October 1979, Chen Yingzhen was detained by the Military Judicial Department of the Police Headquarters at that time on the grounds of "suspected rebellion, arrest and escape", and finally released 36 hours later under the joint protests of Shi Mingde, Chen Guying, Bai Xianyong, Zheng Shuoyu and others.
In 1985, Chen Yingzhen founded the reportage publication "Human World" with the theme of caring for the forgotten and vulnerable.
In 1985, Chen Yingzhen founded the monthly magazine "Human World", which combines photography and reportage literature and in-depth reporting, with the purpose of "looking at Taiwan's people, life, labor, ecological environment, society and history from the standpoint of the weak and small in society, so as to record, witness, report and criticize", creating a precedent for reportage literature.
Chen Yingzhen turned his brushstrokes to the economic and cultural aggression of the Third World, and criticized Taiwan's transnational capitalist economy, especially the pro-American political structure and social atmosphere, bringing to Taiwan the danger of becoming a de facto colony again with works such as "Washington Building", "Night Truck", and "Emperor of Ten Thousand Merchants". At this time, Chen Yingzhen has touched the proposition of how the people of the third world should cope and survive in the process of globalization. After the 1980s, when Taiwan's political taboos gradually opened, Chen Yingzhen used three works, "Mountain Road", "Bell Flower", and "Zhao Nandong" to commemorate the left-wing revolutionaries in Taiwan who were persecuted in the white terror, and also reflected on the descendants of revolutionaries in Taiwan, which suffered from "historical amnesia", and finally settled down and fell into nothingness. In Wei Tianxiao's view, after his release from prison, "Chen Yingzhen of literature became Chen Yingzhen of politics." However, due to financial constraints, Human Magazine was finally discontinued in 1989. "Human Magazine is very well done. I think that magazine has a world level. Wei Tianxiao said.
Chen Yingzhen has created dozens of novels, which are basically realist works with a critical spirit. "After all, Yingzhen is a writer, not a political commentator. He expressed his political ideas and opinions in a literary way. In my opinion, Yingzhen is a person who loves the country and the people. Patriotic, he advocates reunification; loves the people, he is socialist. Wang Xiaobo said.
Author: "Global People" reporter Zhao Jingyi
Original manuscripts, reprinted with authorization, otherwise rights protection to the end.