Life> Reading

A tale of loss and longing

By Liu Xiangrui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-10 09:41

"I spent a longer time wiping my tears than writing," Su Wei-chen recalls, referring to her book Vagrants in Time (2006) which she has dedicated to her husband who died of cancer in 2004.

An acclaimed novelist, Su, 56, appeared on the literary stage in Taiwan in the late 1970s. Beijing Jiban Book Co Ltd now introduces her works to the mainland.

Dressed in a gray coat and brown scarf, the frail writer met readers in a Beijing bookstore recently. Speaking in a gentle voice, with an occasional shy smile, Su tried hard to hide her sadness.

"Perhaps, this is my last novel," Su reportedly told Hong Kong literary critic Leung Man-tao.

The book is, in many ways, about death, but Su makes it unique by detailing her own experiences and observations.

"Although I seem to be writing about death, I am really writing about life," Su says.

She weaves in details of how her husband fought cancer and faced death with dignity, humor and an indomitable will.

"My husband saw himself dying without tears or sadness. He always said - 'people die, whether they fear it or not'," Su writes.

"Being a soldier, he would have rather died fighting on the operation table but he didn't get the chance as his cancer was too advanced for surgery.

"When talking about my husband, I am trying to understand the void in relationships that death brings."

Su also introduces an entirely fictional group of vagrants to illustrate how her husband, who she thinks was like a vagrant, lived.

"Vagrants have no destination, they just have to keep moving," Su writes.

A one-time editor with United Daily News, Su is currently an assistant professor of Chinese literature at the National Cheng Kung University based in Tainan.

David Der-wei Wang, a distinguished Taiwan-based critic and lecturer at Harvard University, says, "Four years in military school and eight years of military service gave Su's early works a strong flavor of military novels.

"But it was her later works in the 1980s such as Staying with Him but for a While and Secular Women, which revealed her feminine side and a fresh style of writing, that drew much attention from the public."

Su grew up in juancun, settlements built for soldiers and their families who retreated to Taiwan from the mainland in 1949.

Although these settlements were gradually demolished in the 1980s they were a notable cultural phenomenon in Taiwan and a ready subject for literature, according to Wang.

It influenced Su's creations greatly and many of her works, such as Say Goodbye to Tongfang (1990), were set in these communities.

"Growing up there is quite a memory, although it's hardly a pleasant one," Su says. "It has enriched my life and allowed me to understand its vicissitudes."