From the Old Country

Lihe Zhong

Published by Columbia University Press 2014

From the Old Country

Stories and Sketches of China and Taiwan

Lihe Zhong
Translated by: T. McClellan
Preface by: Tiejun Zhong

In the series Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan

https://doi.org/10.7312/zhon16630

Overview
Contents

About this book

Zhong Lihe's fictional portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of his native Hakka districts. His scenic descriptions are deft and atmospheric, and his psychological explorations are acute. The first anthology to present his work in English, this volume features two novellas, ten short stories, and four short prose works.

Though he lived most of his life in rural South Taiwan, Zhong Lihe spent several years in Manchuria and Peking, moving among an eclectic mix of ethnicities, social classes, and cultures. His fictional portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of his native Hakka districts. His scenic descriptions are deft and atmospheric, and his psychological explorations are acute. The first anthology to present his work in English, this volume features two novellas, ten short stories, and four short prose works.

Author information

Zhong Lihe (1915–1960) grew up in a village in Pingtung and spent his early adulthood working on his father's remote hill farm in Meinong. In between and after, he spent considerable time in Taiwan's cities, chiefly Kaohsiung and Taipei, as well as in Mukden and Peking in Mainland China. Most of his earliest stories were written on the Mainland when he was in his mid to late-twenties, and many of those are set in Manchuria and China. His work realistically and humanely critiques and celebrates the problems and riches of the communities and cultures he knew, particularly the Hakka Chinese peasantry of his native rural South Taiwan.

T. M. McClellan was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders. He earned his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Edinburgh and specialized in modern Chinese literature. He is the author of Zhang Henshui and Popular Chinese Fiction, 1919–1949.

Zhong Tiejun is Zhong Lihe's third and only surviving son. He is known as a literary writer on family and Meinong affairs.

Reviews

Lingchei Letty Chen:
The publication of this volume of Zhong Lihe's (1915-1960) representative works, elegantly translated and expertly edited by T. M. McClellan, is a rare literary occasion that certainly deserves applause.

Elegantly translated and expertly edited... a rare literary occasion.... Zhong's subtle, reflective, and lyrical style of writing reminds us of a combined quality and charm of Lu Xun and Shen Congwen.

This thoughtful, scholarly apparatus accompanies a judicious selection of beautifully rendered stories and sketches This is a fine book. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in modern Chinese literature from Taiwan.

This is a valuable book; it's well-translated into good idiomatic English by T. M. McLennan and presents a moving, living picture through its vignettes of Taiwanese life in particular, perhaps without too much nostalgia for the old ways but without entirely welcoming the new ways either.

Howard Goldblatt, coeditor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature:
These fine stories can be appreciated on at least two levels: as well-crafted and well-translated literature and as historical documents chronicling life in Taiwan under Japanese rule. The author, a Hakka-born Taiwanese, occupies a unique and favored position in Taiwan's literary history.

Bonnie McDougall, author of Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century:
Zhong Lihe is gifted with the authentic talent of the self-taught writer, exceptional in his ability to reach beyond class and national stereotypes, and unwisely neglected outside his native Taiwan. His translator, T. M. McClellan, is wonderfully fluent in his distinctive and wryly imaginative English; he also brings to his translation and introduction an acute literary sensibility, a highly-developed understanding of the author's life and times, and a profound knowledge of the Chinese language. This combination makes reading their book an exhilarating experience.

Michel Hockx, University of London:
This wonderful collection of stories introduces the English reader to the beautiful prose of Zhong Lihe, often regarded as the founding father of Taiwan's 'native soil literature.' Zhong's is a major voice in Taiwanese literature. His work brings out all the complexities of Taiwanese history and society: the transition from Japanese to Chinese rule, the fraught relationship with the Mainland, and the rich variety of ethnicities and languages on the island itself. In these stories, Zhong ranges from nostalgic rural idylls to harsh realist observations, mostly set in his hometown of Meinong and also drawn from his to? sojourns in occupied Peking and the puppet-state Manchuria. The English translation by T. M. McClellan masterfully captures the mood of the stories. From the Old Country is a very welcome addition to the growing body of English translations of Sinophone literature.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Sources, Translations, and Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Translator’s Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Part 1. Formative Years
1. My Grandma from the Mountains Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
2. First Love Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. From the Old Country Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Part 2. Stories from the Old Country
4. In the Willow Shade Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
5. Oleander Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
6. The Fourth Day Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Part 3. Homeland
7. Zugteuzong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
8. Forest Fire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
9. Uncle A-Huang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
10. My “Out-Law” and the Hill Songs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
Part 4. Meinong Lyrics
11. My Study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
12. The Grassy Bank Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
13. The Plow and the Sky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
14. The Little Ridge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Part 5. Meinong Economics
15. Swimming and Sinking Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
16. Rain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 16
- Other: 16 b&w illustrations

eBook

Published: February 25, 2014
ISBN: 9780231536493