As part of the colonial government's overall goal of keeping the anti-Japanese movement in check,
public education became an important mechanism for facilitating both control and intercultural dialogue. While secondary education institutions were restricted mostly to Japanese nationals, the impact of compulsory primary education on the Taiwanese was immense.
Literature movements did not disappear even when they were under censorship by the colonial government-general. In the early 1930s, a famous debate on Taiwanese rural language unfolded formally. This event had numerous lasting effects on Taiwanese literature, language and racial consciousness. In 1930, Taiwanese-Japanese resident
Huang Shihui started the debate on rural literature in Tokyo. He advocated that Taiwanese literature should be about Taiwan, have impact on a wide audience, and use
Taiwanese Hokkien. In 1931,
Koeh Chhiu-seng, a resident of Taihoku (Taipei), prominently supported Huang's viewpoint. Koeh started the Taiwanese Rural Language Debate, which advocated literature published in Taiwanese. This was immediately supported by
Loa Ho who is considered as the father of Taiwanese literature. After this, dispute as to whether the literature of Taiwan should use Taiwanese or
Chinese, and whether the subject matter should concern Taiwan, became the focus of the New Taiwan Literature Movement.
However, because of the upcoming war and the pervasive Japanese cultural education, these debates could not develop any further. They finally lost traction under the Japanization policy set by the government.
After the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the government of Taiwan immediately instituted "National Spirit General Mobilization", which formally commenced the Japanization policy.