Wang Baiyuan (; November 3, 1902 – October 3, 1965) was a Taiwanese modernist poet and a Japanese-language writer.
He was born in Huimin Village, Ershui Township, Changhua County, Taiwan. In 1918, Wang Baiyuan graduated from Ershui Public School and was admitted to the National Taipei University of Education. During his time at the National Taipei University of Education, he met Xie Chunmu, with whom he later collaborated . After graduating from a regular school, he served as a teacher at Xihu Public School in Taichung Prefecture (now Xihu Elementary School in Changhua County) in 1921 and as a trainer (formerly known as a Japanese teacher position) at Ershui Public School in Taichung Prefecture (now Ershui Elementary School in Changhua County) in 1922. Wang Baiyuan went to Japan for further studies in 1923 and attended the Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan. After graduation, he taught at the Women's Normal School in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. During his stay in Japan, Wang Baiyuan married a Japanese woman and devoted himself to literary creation, actively engaging in scholarly activities. In 1931, Wang Baiyuan published his personal poetry collection "The Way of Thorns" (蕀の道); In 1932, Wang Baiyuan and a group of literary and artistic colleagues from Tokyo and Taiwan organized the Taiwan Art Research Association and founded Formosa magazine. Due to individual members participating in anti-imperialist marches being arrested by the police, the whole group was implicated, and Wang Baiyuan suffered and lost his teaching position. In 1934, after Wang Baiyuan divorced his Japanese wife, Kubota Takashi, he left Japan and went to Shanghai to work at Hualian News Agency. Wang Baiyuan, following his tenure as an educator within the Pattern Department at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, encountered tumultuous times as stability eluded him. With the eruption of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, his life took a harrowing turn. Following the Japanese army's occupation of the French Concession, Wang Baiyuan faced arrest and subsequent sentencing to eight years of imprisonment. He endured six years of confinement before being deported to Taipei to complete his term. Upon his release, he found a new professional path, joining the ranks of Taiwan Daily News.
After the war, Wang Baiyuan actively engaged in cultural endeavors. He co-founded the Taiwan Cultural Cooperation Association (established in 1946 at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei) alongside You Mijian, Yang Yunping, Chen Shaoxin, Shen Xiangcheng, Su Xin, and others and became a member of the association. He also served as the editor and primary contributor for the organization's magazine, Taiwan Culture. Subsequently, Wang Baiyuan held positions at institutions such as Li Chunqing's Taiwan Review, where he worked as the editorial director, Taiwan New Student Daily , and Cai Peihuo's Red Cross. By the end of 1947, Wang Baiyuan became entangled in the February 28 incident and was apprehended and incarcerated by the authorities. Fortunately, with the guarantee provided by You Mijian, he was eventually released from prison. However, after enduring a series of harsh setbacks and residing in a highly oppressive and politically charged atmosphere, Wang Baiyuan's youthful vigor gradually faded. In his later years, he began organizing literary materials and published an article titled "History of Taiwan Art Movement" in the 1954 Taipei Cultural Relics. Despite his efforts, he did not achieve significant progress after that. In 1965, Wang Baiyuan died at the age of 63 due to complications from uremia.
Life
In Japan In his childhood, Wang Baiyuan's father often told the story of Lin Shuangwen, so Lin Shuangwen's life story is deeply recorded in Wang Baiyuan's heart.
During his time at the Erbashui Public School (school in Ershui Township), Wang Baiyuan enjoyed reading and painting. He often painted ducks on the blackboard and participated in the production of wall posters.
Wang Baiyuan admitted that during his time at National Taiwan Normal University, he "disregarded worldly affairs and did not understand society. He only studied and played tennis every day."; My friend and classmate Xie Chunmu said that Wang Baiyuan was "very innocent and happy, like a bird singing and dancing brightly before spring" and "left the school loved by everyone."
As they were about to graduate, Wang Baiyuan and several classmates from Taipei Normal University took a cross-dressing photo. Wang Baiyuan disguised himself as a woman in a suit, with one classmate dressed as Charlie Chaplin and the other as a fortune teller; As for Xie Chunmu and other classmates, they were dressed in a Taiwanese uniform, holding a bicycle in both hands, making a posture of about to depart. A sign was hanging at the back of the bike with the words "Enhancing Taiwan's Culture." In front of them, a classmate pretended to be Japanese and stood there, unwilling to let him go. The same was true for the front of the bike, which hung a sign with the words "No, wait a little longer!". After graduation, Wang Baiyuan often carried this photo with him to encourage himself.
After graduating from National Taiwan Normal University 1921, Wang Baiyuan went to work as a teacher at a public school in Xihu, Changhua. His memoirs mentioned that he "only had the passion for education, worked happily every day, and played well with children." However, he had already realized the ethnic conflicts in the actual society and personally experienced the problem of exclusion and differential treatment of Taiwanese people. In addition, Wang Baiyuan also noticed the demands and activities of Chiang Wei-shui and the Taiwan Cultural Association, but he did not join the association at that time.
Wang Baiyuan was inspired by the book "The Departure of Human Culture" by Japanese scholar Naotaro Kudo and developed a strong interest in art. He later mentioned in his memoirs that this book drove him to decide his life direction. However, Wang Baiyuan seems to be somewhat concerned about this direction in life. After the war, at a banquet, he met Naotaro Kudo and said, "Mr. Kudo, I read his masterpiece 'The Departure of Human Culture' twenty years ago, so I went to Tokyo to study art. Since then, I have experienced many ups and downs in life. Should I thank you, or should I hate you?" After hearing this, Naotaro Kudo shook his head, smiled, and silently said nothing.
During his study abroad in Japan, Wang Baiyuan slept and ate with Xie Chunmu. The two often talked about the fate of Taiwanese people upstairs in their apartment until dawn. In 1931, Wang Baiyuan published the Japanese poetry collection "The Way of Thorns" (translated as "荆棘之道" in Chinese). Xie Chunmu specially wrote a preface for Wang Baiyuan, explaining his friendship with him, Wang Baiyuan's ideological transformation, and revealing his dissatisfaction with Japan's assimilation policy and educational methods. Wang Baiyuan was quite sure of Xie Chunmu's preface and translated it into Chinese many years later.
During the semester at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, Wang Baiyuan collaborated with his classmates Hiroshi Junichi and Sato Shigeichi to release the fan magazine "Gon". Due to the mismatch between the school education and the art environment in Japan at that time, Wang Baiyuan gradually shifted his attention to poetry and prose creation.
Wang Baiyuan, who aspires to become a Taiwanese Miller, has a style that is vastly different from Miller's graduation works. According to Wang Baiyuan's student recollection, his graduation work was a Japanese painting with several trees as the background and female portraits as the theme. This painting was originally decorated inside the Morioka Women's Normal School in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, but was destroyed by a fire on August 28, 1948.
Wang Baiyuan was not only interested in the literary and philosophical ideas of Indian poet Tagore but also had high expectations for Gandhi's Indian independence movement, Sun Yat-sen's Chinese revolutionary movement, and socialism. He wrote "The Poet Saint Tagore." In 1927 and "Gandhi and India's Independence Movement" in 1930 regarded India's Renaissance and independence movement as the precursor to Asia's liberation from imperialism.
once mentioned at Wang Baiyuan's farewell ceremony that when Wang Baiyuan was a teacher in Japan, due to his generous nature and often helping friends, his pockets were usually empty, and he didn't have much money. In addition, ,, Wu Chuo-liu, , and others also miss Wang Baiyuan's kind attitude towards others, as well as his indifference towards money and fame.
In addition to being helpful, Wang Baiyuan often travels on behalf of his predecessors to search for collectibles.
Before studying in Japan, Wang Baiyuan had already married Ms. Chen Cao, but there was a significant gap in their education level and ideological concepts. After studying in Japan, Wang Baiyuan wanted to publish "The Way of Thorns." Still, he was worried that the publication of his poetry collection and the left-wing literary and artistic activities he wanted to engage in might affect his wife, so he voluntarily requested a divorce. During an interview with Chen Caikun, Zhang Fu, a student of Wang Baiyuan, briefly described the scene and mentioned that after Wang Baiyuan spoke, Chen Cao, who was cutting fruits at the time, was shocked and angry. He accidentally waved and cut Wang Baiyuan's hand. Seeing her husband bleeding profusely, Chen Cao couldn't bear it and had to agree to his request.
Wang Baiyuan was originally a student selected by the Taiwan Governor General's Office to study in Japan. Still, later, due to ideological issues, he could not return to Taiwan to teach. After graduating from the Normal School of Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts, Wang Baiyuan was unemployed for more than half a year. Later, through the recommendation of his Tokyo Academy of Fine Arts classmate Imai Kikuzang, Wang Baiyuan took over the vacancy at Iwate Normal Women's School (Imai Kikuzang left due to enlistment) and was hired. In addition to the help of classmates, the open-minded attitude of the school principal was also the key to Wang Baiyuan's employment.
After divorcing his first wife, Chen Cao, Wang Baiyuan fell in love with a student from a girls' school, Kubota Tanaka. They didn't spend much time together. After Wang Baiyuan left Japan, he never returned to Japan to live with Kubota Takashi and his daughter due to personal instability and the impact of the turbulent situation.