Week 12:

Chang Ta-chun and the Wild Kids in the Urban World

[Nov 28th, 2013]Instructor:

Richard Rong-bin Chen, PhD.Adjunct Assistant Professor,

Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, NTU

Taiwan Fiction and Postwar Urban Experience

Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Wikipedia Rico Shen

1957: born in Taipei City, but his father was from Shan-dong Province.

Education: attained both BA and MA degrees from Fu Jen Catholic University (Department and Graduate Institute of Chinese Literature).

Used to be an instructor of Chinese Literature in Fu Jen and a host of TV programs, now a host in a FM radio talk-show (FM 98.1).

Wild Kids: Two Novels about Growing up. Trans. Michael Berry. Columbia UP, 2000.

(Containing both My Kid Sister [ 《我妹妹》 ] and Wild Child [《野孩子》 ] .)

Enfants des rues. Trans. Mathilde Chou Philippe Picquier, 2006.

(Containing only Wild Child.) La Stèle du général. Trans. Mathilde Chou

Philippe Picquier, 2004.

(Story collection. English version “The General’s Monument” [〈將軍碑〉 ] )

”A Guided Tour of an Apartment Complex” (1986) by Chang Ta-chun

• First published in Unitas [《聯合文學》 ]

• Story Structure is the structure of the apartment.

• A story with more than ten protagonists, each of them with a different job.

• Spatially connected, but socially alienated.

• Unknowing relations among them.

• Shows a cynic perspective on marriage and morality.

The Fortune Building [富禮大廈 ]

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

• Written on the basis of a specific urban and suburban structure.

• Like Crystal Boys, it depicts a bunch of social outcasts.

• Hou Shichun [侯世春 ]: protagonist, a truant who became a part of the underground society as soon as he left the school and family.

Narrative and Urban Structure in Wild Child (1996)

The Review in The Economist• Chang Ta-Chun is a cultural phenomenon in Taiwan,

both as a popular TV host and a bestselling writer. His two short novels, “My Kid Sister” and “Wild Child”, now translated into English and published in one volume as “Wild Kids”, feature members of Taiwan's cynical younger generation. “My Kid Sister” runs through the narrator's adolescence, from the birth of his little sister to her pregnancy at the age of 19. Their family is dysfunctional in a uniquely Taiwanese, East-meets-West way, combining Freudian angst (children and parents) with comic walk-on parts for the bearers of Chinese tradition (grandparents). “Wild Child” is a

PLEASE DON'T CALL ME HUMAN. Wang Shuo (translated By Howard Goldblatt); THE REPUBLIC OF WINE. By Mo Yan (translated by Howard Goldblatt); WILD KIDS: TWO NOVELS ABOUT GROWING UP. By Chang Ta-Chun (translated by Michael Berry); THE DEER&THE CAULDRON. By Louis Cha (translated by John Minford). (April 12, 2001). Crouching pen, hidden talent. The Economist (US).  Retrieved November 25, 2013 from http://www.economist.com/node/568895

• darker episode, in which 14-year-old Hou Shichun drops out of school and runs away from home. After falling into the Taiwanese underworld, he encounters other confused youngsters: Old Bull, Little Horse and Apricot. Although not unlike Holden Caulfield's lonesome voice in J.D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye”, Mr Hou's narrative is a more brutal depiction of the spiritual vacuum of Taiwanese youth.

PLEASE DON'T CALL ME HUMAN. Wang Shuo (translated By Howard Goldblatt); THE REPUBLIC OF WINE. By Mo Yan (translated by Howard Goldblatt); WILD KIDS: TWO NOVELS ABOUT GROWING UP. By Chang Ta-Chun (translated by Michael Berry); THE DEER&THE CAULDRON. By Louis Cha (translated by John Minford). (April 12, 2001). Crouching pen, hidden talent. The Economist (US).  Retrieved November 25, 2013 from http://www.economist.com/node/568895

The Characters

• Horsefly. [虻哥 ]

• Little Five. [小五 ]

• Ah Dibo [阿弟波 ]

• Uncle Xu [許叔 ]

• Annie, Hoop, and Apricot. [阿妮、阿環、美杏 ]

• Old Bull [牯古 ]

• Zeng Ahzhi [曾阿治 ]

• Little Horse [小馬 ]

• Little Xinjiang [小新疆 ]

• Bull-boy [小公牛 ]

Socialized Space in Wild Child

• When I say the space, especially the urban space, is socialized, I mean space is the place where humans engage one another as individuals or communities, and space is always shaped by contending social institutions.

• Antagonism: Gang of Horsefly vs. gang of Uncle Xu. [Games/The Handgun/The Hotel/The Negotiation]

• Home, school, and commercial building constitute an institutionalized space which is in a strong contrast to places such as “the garage,” “junkyard,” gambling parlors, and those dingy hotels.

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

Beginning (2)School and Home [falsely accused by Mr. Hippo of burning the class geography exams]

In the Streets (3) Bingo Wonderland

In the Heart of the Night (4)

The garage [surrounded by highway overpass, a bowling alley, and two high buildings]

Games (6) The warehouse casino in the valley

The Handgun (8) The junkyard (in Xizhi)

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

On the Rooftop (11)Eternal Spring Ave. [長春路 ]“whorehouse hair salons”Buddhist hall of worship

The Hotel (14) Dingy hotels

The Negotiation (26)

Lai Lai Sheraton

The Birthday (27) Ma Jianren Hospital

National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

Symbolic Function of Space• These days Uncle Xu runs things at the parking lot.

The lot is about the size of two basketball courts. In front is a highway overpass, in back is a bowling alley, and on the two sides are a couple of buildings over ten stories tall. If you stand in the middle of the parking lot and look around, you’ll feel like you have fallen into a garbage can. The ticket box where uncle Xu worked was like a miniature trash can within the larger one. As Uncle Xu scurried out of his box he looked really strange, peering around in all directions almost like a rat. (p. 152)

Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

Main Themes• Organized crime.

• Problem of police corruption.

• The disappearance of Hou Shichun’s father.

• (A good-for-nothing gambler.)

• (Loss of traditional value?)

• Ma Jianren vs. Little Horse

• Hou’s indifferent and hypocritical mother.

• Chapter 6: “Games”

• Chapter 7: “Good-for-nothings”

• Chapter 17: “The Poster”

A Workaholic Mother

• . . . I began to think about my own mother. When you are in terrible pain and thoroughly uncomfortable, imagining your mother driving a smelly van isn’t difficult at all. . . . My mom should have been at work. She probably already knew what I’d done yesterday, but just like always she would still go to work. On Tuesdays she would always wear a pair of gray pants to the office. . . . (p. 161)

Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

• “Hello? Mr. He? This is Hou Shichun’s mother. That’s right. Hou Shichun still hasn’t returned! He’s really making me crazy!”

• …

• “Then do you think I should call the police?” As my mother spoke, I’m sure she was sketching a draft advertisement or scriblling out some document—who knows, maybe she was knitting her brows and shaking her head at somebody else, telling them not to do anything silly while she was on the phone. (p. 162)

Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

Discriminating Eccentricity• This man stood on the rooftop of the somewhat

shorter building across the street. . . . But wearing two hats was nothing—most outrageous was the fact that he was wearing several layers of clothes; there must have been somewhere around, what, fifty layers? . . . This guy’s pants were even more ridiculous that his shirts and jackets. He wore the shorter pants on the outside and the longer ones on the inside, so you could see crystal-clear that he was wearing at least five or six pairs. . . . (p. 166-7)Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.),

Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

• That guy, it turned out, was sunbathing and singing on the rooftop. Here’s the comment of Hou’s mother on him:

• “Oh, God, another loser!” As she spoke, my mother patted my shoulder. “What’s one to do? These days there are more and more of these characters in Taiwan.”

• “Is he insane?” I asked.

• “Well, he’s got to have a screw loose somewhere.”

• . . . “If you don’t study hard and work hard, that’s how you’ll end up. Got it?”

• “End up like what?” . . .

• “End up a loser,” Mom answered.

• “Is there something wrong with being a loser?” (p. 167-8)Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

Is she a responsible mother?• Commercial Queen Jade Aroma Chen is a well-

known figure who actively takes part in various activities for the public welfare. Having experienced the misfortune of a failed marriage, she threw herself whole-heartedly into her career and social work, but in the end, who could predict that she would neglect properly disciplining her own son? Recently her only son, Hou Shichun, suddenly disappeared without notice, running away from home. Not long before, Hou Shichun was involved in a case of (p. 211-2)

Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

damaging public property on his school campus; moreover, owing to harbored resentment, the accused student went so far as to assault a teacher. As ill fortune has already befallen Mrs. Chen, she has resolved to draw a lesson from her painful experience . . . Mrs. Chen has bravely stood up. She has taken her own bitter experience as the inspiration and theme in designing a fund-raising activity poster for the New Era Cultural and Educational Foundation, which has long been concerned with problems facing today’s adolescents. . . . She writes: “My child! Your mother is here, your family is here. The road back is in your heart; give your mother a chance; let us grow together!” (p. 211-2)

The son’s question: Why don’t you just go on eternally searching for me?

Source: Chang Ta-chun .(2000) Michael Berry(Eds.), Wild kids : two novels about growing up. New York : Columbia University Press

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2Wikipedia Rico Shenhttp://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2008TIBE_Day5_Hall1_ActivityCenter2_Da-chuen_Chang.jpg2013/11/25 visited

6 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

7 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

9 Chang Ta-Chun is a …

(grandparents). “Wild

Child” is a

PLEASE DON'T CALL ME HUMAN. Wang Shuo (translated By Howard Goldblatt); THE REPUBLIC OF WINE. By Mo Yan (translated by Howard Goldblatt); WILD KIDS: TWO NOVELS ABOUT GROWING UP. By Chang Ta-Chun (translated by Michael Berry); THE DEER&THE CAULDRON. By Louis Cha (translated by John Minford). (April 12, 2001). Crouching pen, hidden talent. The Economist (US).  Retrieved November 25, 2013 from http://www.economist.com/node/568895

10darker episode, in which

…spiritual vacuum of

Taiwanese youth.

PLEASE DON'T CALL ME HUMAN. Wang Shuo (translated By Howard Goldblatt); THE REPUBLIC OF WINE. By Mo Yan (translated by Howard Goldblatt); WILD KIDS: TWO NOVELS ABOUT GROWING UP. By Chang Ta-Chun (translated by Michael Berry); THE DEER&THE CAULDRON. By Louis Cha (translated by John Minford). (April 12, 2001). Crouching pen, hidden talent. The Economist (US).  Retrieved November 25, 2013 from http://www.economist.com/node/568895

13 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

Copyright DeclarationPage Work Licensing Author/Source

14 National Taiwan University Richard Rong-bin Chen

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These days Uncle Xu runs things …around in all directions almost like a rat.

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (p.152). New York : Columbia University Press

18. . . I began to think about my …wear a pair of gray pants to the office. . . .

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (p.161). New York : Columbia University Press

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“Hello? Mr. He? This is…making me crazy!”…“Then do you think I … was on the phone.

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (p.162). New York : Columbia University Press

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This man stood on the rooftop of the …that he was wearing at least five or six pairs. . .

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (pp.166-7). New York : Columbia University Press

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21

That guy, it turned out, was …“Is there something wrong with being a loser?”

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (pp.167-8). New York : Columbia University Press

22

Commercial Queen Jade Aroma Chen …before, Hou Shichun was involved in a case of

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (pp.167-8). New York : Columbia University Press

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damaging public property on his school …give your mother a chance; let us grow together!”

Chang Ta-chun .(2000) . Wild Child Michael Berry(Eds.)Wild kids : two novels about growing up. (pp.211-2). New York : Columbia University Press