In celebration of Women’s History Month, I wanted to spotlight one of my all time favorite authors, Chu T’ien-wen (朱天文, Zhutianwen). A literary powerhouse from Taipei City, Chu T’ien-wen grew up in a military village where she acquired a love for writing early in life. Her father, Chu Hsi-ning (朱西寧, Zhuxining) enjoyed status as a notable author and her mother, Liu Musha (劉慕沙, Liumusha) worked as a reputable Japanese translator. Inspired by her parents, Chu began writing short stories in high school, founded a literary magazine at her university, and went on to become one of Taiwan’s most renowned authors.
Some of Chu T’ien-wen’s most celebrated works include Notes of a Desolate Man (1994) and Fin-de-Siècle Splendor (1990), which both explore Taipei at the turn of the century. Through richly aesthetic language and indulgent characterizations, Chu’s fiction provides powerful socio-political commentary on contemporary Taipei. Her writing exposes limitations to globalization and urban sprawl, which trap residents in isolation and stasis. The China Times recognized Chu’s literary prowess by awarding Notes of a Desolate Man their prestigious novel prize, calcifying her celebrity status in Taiwan.
Beyond the realm of literature, Chu T’ien-wen played a pivotal role in shaping Taiwan’s film industry during the late-twentieth-century. She wrote screenplays for directors such as Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, contributing her talents as a storyteller and igniting Taiwan New Cinema with her dialogue. A movement initially instigated by the state to revitalize domestic film production, Taiwan New Cinema transformed into a groundbreaking artistic movement. New Cinema films foreground emotional nuance and focus on realistic depictions of life in Taiwan, leaving powerful domestic and international legacies. A testament to New Cinema’s reach, Chu’s screenplays received awards at the Venice and Tokyo International Film Festivals, which helped propel her towards global prestige.
In recent decades, scholars have translated many of Chu’s works into English. Even in translation, her words resonate with power and beauty and continue to inspire readers across the globe. I strongly recommend Chu T’ien-wen’s fiction to anyone and everyone, and hope that you will read her work in honor of Women’s History Month!
“Writing is a way of organizing yourself, reevaluating your own relationship with the contemporary reality in which you live. The final product of this process of organization and reflection is that something crystallizes, or that something blooms. There are many things that we must face in life, so many books to read, but in the end, what do we do with all of this experience and knowledge? Writing becomes the crystallization of all of that, something to leave behind.”
-Chu T’ien-wen
Works Cited
Berry, Michael. “Three Times: Chu T’ien-wen on Writing, Screenwriting, and New Taiwan Cinema.” Chinese Literature Today, vol. 5, no. 2, Routledge, 2016. pp. 46-57.