Why does reading Taiwanese history make us feel that we too will become history? While reading books on Taiwanese history for a new novel, Utsudo realized history isn’t a distant story but the events, large and small, that generations of people lived through in a particular time and place. Scholarly research, too, accumulates and passes from one generation to the next. The smiling boys in old photos once had dreams and worries just like us. We live within history, and one day we will become history too.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Starting to read Taiwanese history for a new work

For a new work, I started reading books about Taiwanese history.

Along the way, I came to understand more deeply what “history” really means.

History isn’t a distant story about a group of people. It refers to everything, big and small, that generation after generation lived through in a weaving of time and space—all the people, events, places and things, from a single person’s confession to an entire city, or even the story of a nation.

Research is passed down and built up across generations

Scholars’ research keeps accumulating too. One generation gets this far, the next takes over and continues, and our understanding deepens further and further. It’s a process of passing on and building up.

Because human life is limited, we can only keep accumulating, passing on what we’ve researched in this life—more complete and closer to the truth—to the next generation, so they can save the time it takes to seek that truth and go straight to exploring deeper.

When I realized this, I was deeply moved.

Day to day we only interact with the people around us, and each day is plain and long. But if you zoom out, you’ll see that all peoples, all of humankind, can really be considered “one.” Aspects like “thought,” “culture” and “progress” are shared in the process of development and accumulation.

Whether we have much or little, we can’t take anything with us in the end. Everything we leave behind, tangible or intangible, will be passed on to those who come next.

That’s right: in the process of pursuing history, we too are walking into history.

The people in old photos were once alive too

I used to think the old photos in textbooks were out of reach. But now I take group photos at events, sometimes with notable figures. I can’t help wondering: might these photos one day appear in a textbook or in a corner of some memorial hall?

Thinking that, it suddenly dawned on me.

The boys smiling in those old black-and-white photos were once living people just like us—breathing, with beating hearts, joys and sorrows, dreams, worries and struggles!

And in those weighty historical records, even a single line of description may be the condensation of someone’s whole life, now a small fragment of history. Those seemingly distant joys and sorrows once lived so deeply in someone’s life.

The surge of emotion in that moment is hard to put into words. Those old photos and the years and numbers written on the walls seemed to awaken—turning back into memories with flesh, blood and warmth.

One day, we too will become history

We live within history, and one day we too will become history.

I only hope that when I do, my life and stories will bring hope and warmth to the next generation.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #131: Beyond Content, How You Teach Matters Too
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.