I’m a little late for International Women’s Day, but better late than never, right? A couple months ago my friend Jean sent me Chung Wenyin’s first novel, Woman Islands (Serenity International, 2011), of course in translation.
Chung Wenying is one of Taiwan’s most popular novelists, although Taiwanese literature isn’t as well known internationally as that from mainland China or even Hong Kong. Woman Islands was first published in 1998 and was only translated into English last year.
The story takes place during the Chinese New Year, when twenty-something Ahmam is about to return to her mother’s village for a week’s vacation. Thanks to many flashbacks, which are all executed flawlessly, we learn that Ahmam and her mother don’t get along, her late father was a drunk and gambler, and that she’s had several tumultuous love affairs.
What I liked about this book was its look at the struggles of a single, independent Taiwanese woman who lives apart from her family. I haven’t read any novels about contemporary Taiwan and what I know about it stems from my one visit there 21 years ago, my friends’ experiences, and a bunch of great films, like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (one of my all-time favorites).
Ahmam’s family and friends have had relationships with mainland Chinese men, all of whom came to Taiwan either in the military or as businessmen. Some were married to wives back in China and established new families in Taiwan, only to return to China during important holidays. Chung writes about their language differences and how the mainland men couldn’t speak Taiwanese (min nan hua) very well. These relationships are pretty common now, but back in 1998 they were still quite novel.
One of Ahmam’s ex-boyfriends came to Taiwan from Hong Kong. He doesn’t read much Chinese, which is hard to believe, but I suppose if someone is educated in English-only schools, it’s possible not to understand Chinese in Hong Kong.
This book is short at 198 pages, but each page is packed with the insights of a modern Taiwanese woman who’s caught between tradition and independence.
More info for you:
1. “The Border as Fiction: Writers of Taiwan” is a collection of short stories of Taiwanese writers, Chung Wenyin also has one story published by it(also translated by me). And the author Li Ang is not the director Li Ang, but a female writer whose name sounds similar.
2. Chung Wenyin’s next novel translated into English will be published in the coming summer. The title is “Decayed Lust”.
hi susan: i’m glad you like the book
jean
Thank YOU so much!! It was such a treat to read a story set in Taiwan. I felt like I was back there, even though it’s been 21 years!
About two years they presented in public library close to me the book “The Border as Fiction: Writers of Taiwan” (2006). One of the author attending was Li Ang from Taiwan, best known for her book “The Butcher’s |Wife” (2002). Both books are on Amazon.
Thanks! I’ll look those up!
Sounds great, but I doubt the local Xin Hua book store would be carrying it… which is a bit of a sod, really.
I have the script book for “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” back on a shelf in Oz, it had a set of colour plates in the middle with the recipes from the flick in it.
I used to take it down and drool over them between meals.
Never thought of making them, though, they were just so complicated, but it was a long time ago.
Shame I can’t access them now.
Ah, books. Real, paper books, I miss having them about – and the convenience of being able to wander off and get whatever book I fancied from either a store or a library.
Ebooks might be handy, but the iPad in the kitchen is a recipe for disaster.
I really miss my Asian Art collection.
Sigh.
Yeah, I can’t imagine Xin Hua would carry it either.
Wow, that “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” script book sounds amazing. I’m sure you could make those dishes now–and would have no problem finding the ingredients. (I remember a time when some ingredients in China were hard to come by, but now I’m dating myself).
Can you start up a new Asian art collection?
I’ve not seen any of the titles that I had here – most of them were pretty narrowly focused, and came from specialised dealers and galleries.
Which is a bit of a sod.
Some of them are just little books, but my favourite, most used reference piece weighed in at about five kilos. A bit hard to tuck under your arm and walk home with!
As for the recipes, I couldn’t find the ingredients in Australia, but I’m sure I could find them here… or at least you’d think so!
It’s likely that those titles can’t be found in China. When I was doing research on my thesis, I had to fly back to Chicago (which I needed to do anyway to change my HK visa) to find old Chinese periodicals at the University of Chicago.
I wonder if you could find those ingredients in Aus now? Time will tell!