ABSTRACT
Based on years of fieldwork, this chapter introduces the Taiwan Tanka Association (Taiwan kadan 台湾歌壇), a group of mostly elderly Taiwanese (born in the 1920–1930s), some younger Taiwanese and Japanese, and currently one indigenous Taiwanese as well as myself, who through a research grant found an excuse for joining the group (as I had a senryū association made up of Japanese Americans in Seattle). The Association meets once a month to share, critique, and study 31-mora Japanese-language tanka poems in a luncheon setting. Each month members email or send one tanka to the organizer, who then compiles an anonymized and numbered list from which participants will select two poems (a form is provided). At the luncheon, members read and discuss why they choose the poems they did (usually mostly praise), and occasionally offer constructive criticism. Out of these meetings, attended by nearly a hundred members of the Taipei branch (fewer in the Tainan meetings), a biannual journal called Taiwan kadan is published in colorful perfect-bound issues, including all tanka submitted each month, poems selected by members (some with commentary), and optional additional 12-poem sequences composed by each member.
