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The purpose of this research is to point out the start stage of new drama as a new genre, including plays, concepts, and the media by social activists in the 1920s, and it represented the pursuit of outlet under the colonial ruling. Being the official media of Taiwan Cultural Association and Taiwan People’s Party, Taiwan Min Pao committed to spreading knowledge in order to enlighten people, and its literary columns facilitated the growth of Taiwan new literature. After Taiwan Cultural Association was divided against itself in 1927, Taiwan Min Pao was relocated from Tokyo to Taipei and reissued with crucial changes. A newly literary column, edited by Lai Ho, became a weekly routine, reprinting many works of Chinese new literature and showcasing those of Taiwanese literature. Navigated by Lai Ho, the column attracted a body of scripts by unknown writers. These plays have featured the genre of western drama and portrayed the youth engaged with social movement — a vivid rendition of the frustration, pessimism, agony, and interior reflections of the social activists confronting the division of Taiwan Cultural Association. In line with the rising wave of Taiwan new literature, the publication of these newly emerging plays represented the correlation between Lai Ho’s editorial policy and the political campaigns around the division of Taiwan Cultural Association. Like the writer Lai Ho who exposed the realities of the colonial ruling by his fictions, poems and proses, “the editor Lai Ho” put these selected plays in print—another social activist’s practical action to attain ideals by liberal arts. At the end of this study, it points out that social activists which reflects the self realized the positive spirit of idealism by writing plays and essays imitating the dramatic genre in the 1920s.Thus, it was significant meaning shown in the drama as new genre like the others and the theatrical events at the same time. |