Shieh,
Zhaohua

Abstract

The Matsu Islands are geographically close to mainland China (People’s Republic of China, PRC,) but are governed politically by the Republic of China government in Taiwan. In 1949, the Nationalist Army withdrew from mainland China and garrisoned in Matsu, forcing upon martial law and closing the islands to the public. Under high-pressure military supervision, the Matsu Islands became a global Cold War-era flagship after World War II, and an anti-Communist ensign. In 1994, Kinmen and Matsu finally lifted the martial law that had lasted for 45 years. Under the circumstances, literary creation gradually flourished, and writers reaped a harvest in poetry, prose, novels, and creative non-fiction, including the reportage of the re-discovery of Thalasseus bernsteini, a nearly extinct tern with a black beak. I published my first collection of poetry, Elves at the Desk, in 1994, which served as a footnote to the Matsu archipelago as border islands during the Cold War era. My presentation will focus on the reading of selected poems in Elves at the Desk and other Matsu writers’ works in the context of the Cold War.