Compared with gender issues and nationalism, the Marxist tradition in studies on Taiwan literature is no doubt relatively stagnant. This paper aims to explore the long ＂absence of the left.＂ The first half of this paper engages in dialogues with a few works on the history of contemporary Taiwan literature as a meditation on the condition of ＂the absence of Marxism＂ in Taiwan's scholarship on literary history and criticism. Although in works of literary history, the leftist postcolonial historiographical viewpoint that emphasizes diverse culture and local consciousness indeed tends to be critical of existing institutions, the main concern of ＂leftist＂ postcolonial historiography is still to reflect on the havoc wreaked by the nation state upon ethnic groups and cultures, rather than to expose the intrinsic flaws of capitalist institutions. The second half of this study returns to the post-martial law Taiwan fiction and ruminates on how its politics of ＂ethnic identity＂ covers that of ＂class struggle＂: local fiction writers from Mainland China often adopt a ＂class narrative＂ to distinguish between the different class positions of ＂rich islanders＂ and ＂poor mainlanders.＂ However, the class narratives in contemporary Taiwan fiction, bearing no genuine objections to capitalism and class society per se, basically foreground the tensions of ethnic relations and are rooted in the particular circumstances in which mainlanders were placed after the lifting of martial law.