| Abstract |
After Taiwan’s conscription order issued in 1951, all male citizens in Taiwan would needto join the army when they are 18 years old. However, the compulsory servicemen onlypossess the status of soldiers temporarily, and the reserve officers were regarded as “elites” inthe past because only those university graduates were qualified for application and theacceptance rate was low. This paper focuses on writers Hsiao Yeh, Tu Yeh and Wu Ming, whowere born in the 1950s (the so-called “fourth grade” generation; part of the first generationborn after WWII) and had once served as reserve officers, in order to explore how the armyturned the already famous young writers into soldiers and their self-adjustment in the army. Itis found that, in the army, personal objects are replaced by collectively distributed objects, thus“leaving off” the youths’ original living environment; besides, the individuals could not controlmilitary operations and could only fully cooperate with the army, making it convenient for thearmy to shape the youths into objects fitting nicely into its design. Different from theknowledge activities in the university, the labor activities and physical training in the armymake the reserve officer writers feel ashamed due to the unfamiliar feeling. Moreover, theirphysical weakness would make them understand the impact of aging on human bodies earlier,compared to their counterparts outside the army. However, the reserve officers find a footholdby calling their comrades brothers. Writing also becomes a way for them to resist ailmentwhen injured. Overall, their writings indicate how military service had been regarded as anhonorable act at that time and how their identification with “aggressive masculinity” hadrevealed the permeation of military governance among male citizens’ life experience through acoming-of-age discourse |
