Pai Hsien-yung

A masterwork of modern Chinese literature, Taipei People is a collection of dark, wistful stories following the lives and losses of those who fled to Taipei after the 1949 Communist takeover of mainland China. Welcome to Taipei, Taiwan. The Chinese Civil War is now long over, but its shadow still haunts the city's lost souls. On the eve of her...

Pai Hsien-yung is among the most important writers in contemporary Chinese and world literature. His masterpiece Taipei People is a classic of Taiwanese modernism; with an intensity of vision comparable to James Joyce's Dubliners, it follows the individual struggles of the people of Taipei, with a mix of compassion, nostalgia, mourning, and tenacious clarity. Fifty years after its publication, the...