Taiwan Today

Novelist Chu Shi-ning's family home is a literary Noah's Arc. The family is one of harmony and affection; all are reading and writing enthusiasts. In our booming Industrial society, they have purposely chosen a simple, modest way of life. combining their shared interests with their work.

Near Taipei's Shin Hai Tunnel, there is a block of two-story buildings, each with a tiny yard where flowers, trees and vines peer over the walls, giving a look of verdant animation to the small community.

In this pleasant, warm place live novelist Chu Shi-ning and his family. Cats and dogs, big and small, like to stretch their limbs on the living room floor. These pets have gained a reputation of sorts for the Chus among the literary art circles of Taiwan ... all of them are pet-crazy. They are especially enamored of the homeless cats and dogs wandering bereft, dirty and odorous along the streets. And a "home for cats and dogs" has near replaced their own as the result of the family's constant collecting of street strays.

Chu's writing career started 32 years ago, when he followed the Nationalist troops to Taiwan. At 21, his experiences of the civil war gave breadth and inspiration to his literary talent. He picked up his pen at that time and started a long and uninterrupted career.

At the Fengshan army base in southern Taiwan, Chu was one of the renowned "Three Soldiers," with Twan Tsai-hua and Shi Ma Chung-yuan.

During an earlier stage, Chu's stories, mostly, dealt directly with the war. They included "Love of the Giant Torch" and "Three's a Crowd." Another, "The Seagull" tells the story of a girl's pilgrimage through turmoil; a sea gull flying in the storm symbolizes her struggle against persecution.

In 1960, Chu moved to Taipei. Since the environment, both living and working, was enlarged, he was able to dwell on broader subjects. Such note worthy novels as "The Wolf," "The Iron Oar," "Dream Painting," "The Drought Ghost" and "The Dawn" were all products of that time. "The Wolf' especially drew attention and comment.

It is a story about an orphan who was raised by an uncle. He was not favored by his aunt because of his refusal to treat her as "mom." Meanwhile, the relationship between the aunt and a family employee was discovered by another employee, "Big Hub." Stirred by Big Hub's spirit of live-let-live, the aunt repents and treats her nephew with love.

Big Hub's strength and benevolence symbolize the spirit of love and toleration which can enlighten and combat evil. "The Wolf' is Chu's most successful novel, deftly interpreting the Christian doctrine and virtues.

The "Note on the August 23 War" took Chu nine years to complete.

As a colonel on the staff of the Defense Ministry, Chu in 1964 came to rep resent the late President Chiang Kai-shek for the purpose of sending condolence letters and assistance to families of the war dead in Miaoli County. Deeply moved by his contact with the families, Chu decided to write something to commemorate their dead heroes.

In the process of material gathering, Chu said, the most difficult part was to "grasp" the psychological impact of those-more than half-who died in a totally unexpected battle. They range from the highest ranking commanders to foot soldiers.

Chu started writing the book in the spring of 1966. He twice discarded complete drafts before turning in a final version to Lion Literary Monthly in 1975. After its publication in April 1979, the 600,000-word volume became a runaway best-seller. This was attributed by Chu to "the Chinese people's yearning for writing about the war."

Contrary to his own quiet and soft spoken manner, Chu tends to utilize in his writing northern Chinese back grounds, where fiery romanticism is emphasized.

Over the past 32 years, Chu has seen more than 20 of his novels published. Many, including "The Iron Oar," . "The Cat" and "the Blacksmith," have been translated into English. His own favorites are "Dream Painting" and "The Iron Oar," because "the less worrisome the children, the more they deserve their parents' love."

Chu and his wife Liu Mu-sha are a contrasting combination. Known for her translations of Japanese novels, she is almost his complete opposite in physical appearance. While Chu is slim and grey haired, appearing older than his actual 52 years, Liu is plump and baby-faced. The couple have enjoyed a 25-year marriage of writing and other shared interests.

Their own romance would provide a scenario for a romantic novel.

A high school girl in a conservative Taiwan doctor's family, she had been on the winning team of the Taiwan Women's Tennis Doubles championship. She and her partner received a letter from a stranger, inquiring if her partner might be his girl friend of long ago from Nanking. While the partner was un moved, Liu's quick sympathy led her to write back; finally, they fell in love through their correspondence.

The young couple drew family disapproval since he was only a poor soldier. Facing more and more negative pressure from her family, the rich girl made a very hard decision for the times-eloping with the one she loved.

Liu Mu-sha had received four years education in Japanese. As a youngster, she read Japanese fiction sent by uncles living in Japan.

Despite some writing experience, it was not until 1960 that Liu completed her first translation, "The Violet." It took constant effort to improve her Japanese before she was able to translate fine literature. "To translate something that is really good is similar to the challenge you take on when writing something on your own. To translate pure literature is, therefore, much more exciting than merely translating popular novels," she said.

Liu's translations are represented by A Selection of Akudagawa's Works," "A Selection of Modern Japanese Novels" and "A Selection of Abe kobo's Works." She has been planning to provide Chinese readers an overall view of Japanese literature through systematic translation of selected works.

Chu and Liu have three gifted daughters, Tien-wen, Tien-shin, and Tien-i-two are already making literary names for themselves while the third is a talented Chinese opera singer.

Three years ago, Tien-wen and Tien-shin, with other young people, published the "3-3 Periodical," hoping to embody the ideals of Dr. Sun's Three Principles of the People and their faith in the Holy Trinity. Determined to take part in the development of modern Chinese literature, they opened the "3-3 Publishing Company," just across the street from "the Ark." Their dedication to both their country and to literary art is evident.

Though the Christian faith plays an important role in Chus' day-to-day life and work, he and his family oppose the frequent use of superficial pieties.

Three cats lie on the washing machine, basking in the afternoon sun. In the backyard, peaches are blossoming and little green shoots are seen on the bean vines, as if to indicate that the literary spirit of the family is not only perpetual but enriched.

As Liu Mu-sha put it in a recent article, "The Multiple Characteristics of Home": "Home, can be bondage, a prison, a paradise, or an asylum. Above all, it must be considered an accommodation for individuals, but a 'Noah's Arc' for a group of partners.

BOOKS

1982: 'One watches ... arrests'

The following review by Ian Findlay, a writer and teacher filing in Shanghai, appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal. The book is “ Coming Alive: China After Mao,” by Roger Garside:

During the years 1968-70 and 1976-79, Roger Garside was a diplomat attached to the British Embassy in Peking. From this vantage point he was to witness first-hand some of the most important events of post-1949 (main land) Chinese society.

Wandering through the burnt out carcass of the British Embassy in the late 1960s made him aware of the lawlessness and the anarchy of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Within a decade he was to return to Peking for a second tour of duty when he would see the fall of the Gang of Four, the effects of the deaths of Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung and the power behind the Chinese (Communist) political "throne." He also saw the establishment of diplomatic relations between the hated "American imperialists" and the "Red" Chinese, an act which, a mere decade before, seemed utterly inconceivable in the chaos of (mainland) China's Cultural Revolution and American involvement in the Vietnam War. All these events and more Mr. Garside recounts and analyzes in his fine book, "Coming Alive: China After Mao.

" Starting with the death of Premier Chou, Mr. Garside commands our attention from the outset. Bobbing and weaving with considerable skill through the intricacies of both Chinese political and social life, he paints a grim picture of life under Chairman Mao's totalitarian regime and the "dictatorship of the proletariat.

" Chairman Mao and his supporters changed the face of every facet of Chinese society: politics, art, agriculture, industry. It also put everyone on guard against one another, creating a society shackled and oppressed by mass paranoia from which it still struggles to free itself today. Waving the great red herrings of "class struggle" and "the dictatorship of the proletariat," Chairman Mao flexed his totalitarian muscles to the full and with a manic zeal equaled only by Hitler, Stalin and North Korea's Kim II Sung, set about isolating (mainland) China from the international community for the vast part of two decades.

The years of cultural, intellectual, political and personal repression from 1966 to 1976 produced a generation of youth alienated from the party and society. With two democracy movements, first the April Fifth Movement of 1976 and then the Democracy Movement of 1978-79, the disinherited and the betrayed took to the streets to voice their anger. For this generation there had in reality been no youth, no education, no freedom; there had been only betrayal and repression. They had seen with their own eyes the poverty and the backward ness, the high-handedness and the corruption of officialdom in (Communist) China.

From the host of voices that made up the Democracy movements of the 1970s, Mr. Garside pays special attention to dissidents Wei Jingsheng, Huang Xiang and three young men who were known collectively as Li Yi-che. Li Yi che's message from 1973-74 comes through clearly: "(mainland) China has neither democracy nor law; its people want both, and if they do not achieve them they will be condemned to experience new tragedies like those they have undergone since 1966.

" Mr. Wei called for a fifth modernization: democracy. "Without the Fifth Modernization - democracy - all modernizations are doomed to failure," said Mr. Wei at his trial. (He subsequently was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.) Mr. Huang, a poet, wrote about the "invisible war" of repression and fear that is being waged against the people of (mainland) China with "invisible bayonets, artillery and bombs.

" Mr. Garside writes well and his portraits of China's leaders, past and present, are often quite perceptive. This is not so for some of his conclusion". He writes, for example: "To judge by the words and deeds of the years 1977-80, the reformers in the Chinese (Communist) leadership today are not totalitarian either in their ambitions or their methods." In 1982, as one watches one's friends and acquaintances being harassed, intimidated and arrested, it is difficult to agree with him.

The (Communist) China government may have opened its borders to more businessmen, tourists and other, but these visitors have only official and transitory contact with the (mainland) Chinese. The official "trust and openness to foreigners" is always on (Communist) Chinese terms; there is little reciprocity. After all is said and done foreigners- be they students, businessmen or tourists-are tolerated in (mainland) China, nothing more, nothing less.

"Coming Alive" is essentially about relationships, especially those with foreign countries and companies, and the developing relationships within (Red) China's leadership and its people. There is much on law and the need for it, and a good deal on education and the "caricature" that it has been, and still is. There is also a discussion of the new relationship of (mainland) China's economics to reality, and not what the wishful thinkers of the party would like it to be.

How these relationship will work out in the long run no one knows nor can foresee. "Few relationships," writes Mr. Garside, "assume a greater readiness to work together over the long term than those in the fields of arms supply and military training." Huang Xiang's "in visible war" seems to be turning into a highly visible one. A purpose of the new found "trust and' openness" to foreigners appears to be arms supply and military training as the leadership seems deter mined to be prepared against the demand of the fifth modernization: democracy.

The core of Mr. Garside's excel lent book, though, is an optimism which this reviewer finds very hard to share.