From the Old Country: Stories and Sketches of China and Taiwan(Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan)

Though he lived mostly in rural South Taiwan, Zhong Lihe (1915--1960) spent several years in Manchuria and Peking, moving among an eclectic mix of ethnicities, classes, and cultures. His ficitonal portraits unfold on Japanese battlefields and in Peking slums, as well as in the remote, impoverished hill-country villages and farms of Zhong Lihe's 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.

About the Author :
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.

Review :
These fine stories can be appreciated on at least two levels: as well-crafted and well-translated literature and as historical documents chronicling life in Taiwan under Japanese rule.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.--Howard Goldblatt, coeditor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature 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.--Michel Hockx, University of London 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.--Bonnie McDougall, author of Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century