Bert Scruggs
Associate Professor, East Asian Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
University of California, Irvine
Department of East Asian Studies
Mail Code: 6000
Irvine, CA 92697
Department of East Asian Studies
Mail Code: 6000
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Chinese and Taiwanese fiction, literary regionalism
Research Abstract
My first book, Translingual Narration: Colonial and Postcolonial Taiwanese Fiction and Film, foregrounds the question of language and translation in understanding the relationship between colonial literary production and the postcolonial literary field. Analyzing writers such as Yang Kui, Weng Nao, and Yang Qianhe as well as contemporary films such as Hill of No Return and March of Happiness, I disclose the complexity of (post)colonial identity and postcolonial translation to encourage further research into contemporary Taiwanese literature and culture.
My current research focuses on the discourse of home, origins, and ruralism in Chinese and Taiwanese fiction and literary history, which leads to questions about regionalism, dialects, frontiers, borderlands, local cultures, natives and indigenes, and so on.
My current research focuses on the discourse of home, origins, and ruralism in Chinese and Taiwanese fiction and literary history, which leads to questions about regionalism, dialects, frontiers, borderlands, local cultures, natives and indigenes, and so on.
Publications
Monographs
Translingual Narration: Colonial and Postcolonial Taiwanese Fiction and Film. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2015.
Journal Articles
“The Crises of Representation in Taiwan in Ruins and Ground Zero.” National Taiwan University Studies in Taiwan Literature. No. 24 (2020) 83-112.
“Landscapes and Sublime Memories: Revisiting Liang Xiaosheng's ‘A Land of Wonder and Mystery.’” Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 8.4 (2014) 513-531.
“The Postcolonial Appearance of Colonial Taiwan: Film and Memory.” Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 7.2 (2013) 194-213.
“Narratives of Discomfort and Ideology: Yang Kui’s Short Fiction and Postcolonial Taiwan Orthodox Boundaries.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 14.2 (2006) 427-447.
“Identity and Free Will in Colonial Taiwan Fiction: Wu Zhuoliu’s ‘The Doctor’s Mother’ and Wang Changxiong’s ‘Torrent.’” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 16.2 (2004) 160-183.
Translingual Narration: Colonial and Postcolonial Taiwanese Fiction and Film. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2015.
Journal Articles
“The Crises of Representation in Taiwan in Ruins and Ground Zero.” National Taiwan University Studies in Taiwan Literature. No. 24 (2020) 83-112.
“Landscapes and Sublime Memories: Revisiting Liang Xiaosheng's ‘A Land of Wonder and Mystery.’” Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 8.4 (2014) 513-531.
“The Postcolonial Appearance of Colonial Taiwan: Film and Memory.” Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 7.2 (2013) 194-213.
“Narratives of Discomfort and Ideology: Yang Kui’s Short Fiction and Postcolonial Taiwan Orthodox Boundaries.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 14.2 (2006) 427-447.
“Identity and Free Will in Colonial Taiwan Fiction: Wu Zhuoliu’s ‘The Doctor’s Mother’ and Wang Changxiong’s ‘Torrent.’” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 16.2 (2004) 160-183.
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5582
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5582
Last updated
05/11/2026
05/11/2026