ABSTRACT
During the 1980s, Song Zelai became strongly attracted to Zen Buddhism as a spiritual alternative to the prevailing Taiwanese alternatives, like left-wing ideologies, blind negation of Chinese tradition, and uncritical Westernization. Yet he had considerable success with an ecological and dystopian novel called Feixu Taiwan (Taiwan in ruins, 1985). The political and cultural commentary of Song Zelai and his friends in the volume of essays he edited entitled Shui pa Song Zelai? (Who's afraid of Song Zelai? 1986) had, on the other hand, considerable influence on local politics and the forces advocating Taiwan Independence.
