A Journey as a Lingual Experience:Border Transgressions in Haruo Sato’s Writing on Taiwan

Abstract

This thesis examines two of Sato Haruo’s literary works. One is the travel book Nampo Kiko (The Journey to the Southern Lands), and the other is the romance Jyokaisen Kidan (The Mystery of the Fan of the “Old Women’s Morals”). Both of them are based on the author’s experiences while visiting Amoy (Fujian, China) and Taiwan in the summer of 1920. The chief characters of these writings, who cannot sufficiently understand the local languages, feel as if there are high invisible walls in front of them and that they cannot contact the local culture, tradition and history. However, such senses of isolation also give them opportunities to grow their imaginations regarding what resides on the other side of the walls. So far as they view themselves as strangers, they can set their imaginations free and can enjoy them. But once they find themselves as Japanese, they are forced to face political problems and are made to feel uncomfortable. These changes are often caused by the problems of languages. In these pieces, languages do not appear only as tools for communication. They are strongly related to the local culture, and they decide and limit their users’ ways of thinking and recognition. This seems to be what Sato found on his first overseas travel.

Keywords

• Sato Haruo
• cross-cultural understanding
• colony
• travel writing
• lingual border