The novel Orphan of Asia (亞細亞的孤兒) by Taiwanese novelist Wu Chuo-liu (吳濁流) is a classic portrayal of what happened to Taiwanese who longed for the Chinese “motherland” following World War II, and it continues to mirror Taiwan’s predicament decades later.
Once a Japanese colony, Taiwan was later colonized by the so-called “motherland” (China) and was caught up in the conflict between the rival Chinese political parties: the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party. In more recent years, Taiwan has undergone a process of democratization that offers opportunities for national resurrection and social transformation, but it is still shrouded in a dark cloud of unaccounted history.
