The People's Landscape of the Capital: "Taipei People"

Finally came to the "last stop": Taipei. Yes, this time it is "Taipei People" by Mr. Bai Xianyong.

In fact, "Taipei People" has many reviews and book introductions. And in the face of such a great work, it is indeed very stressful. But since it's your choice, you can only do your best.

Yes, I use "great" to describe "Taipei People" because the work has influenced generations of literary men. I once heard Mr. Guo Qiangsheng say that the first time he read "Taipei People" was because he had a copy of "Taipei People" at home. And every subsequent generation of readers/writers who love literature will be influenced by this work.

The first time I read "Taipei People" was taking a course taught by Mr. Long at the University of Hong Kong: From Literature in the 1950s to Understanding the Political Changes at that Time. Teacher Long has high requirements for students, and requires students to study one by one. I still remember the notes I wrote while reading and the discussions in class. This time, I have a different experience.

"Taipei People", published in 1971, included 14 short stories from the 54th year of the Republic of China (1965) to the 60th year of the Republic of China (1971). Except for "Qiu Si", the rest were published in "Modern Literature", which he founded [Note 1] [Note 2].

"Forever Yin Xueyan": Chapter 1 (1965, April 1999)
"A Hand of Green": Part II (1966, August 55th of the Republic of China)
"Removal of the Years": Chapter 4 (1967, August 56th of the Republic of China)
"The Last Night of Jin Taipan": Chapter 6 (1968, May 1957)
"The Blood-Red Rhododendron": Chapter 7 (1969, January 1958)
"Thinking of the Old Fu": Chapter 8 (1965, the fifty-eighth year of the Republic of China)
"The Song of Liang Fu": Chapter 5 (1967, December 56th of the Republic of China)
"Lonely Love Flower": Chapter 10 (1970, 59 years of the Republic of China)
"Huaqiao Rongji": Chapter 12 (1970, 59 years of the Republic of China)
"Autumn Thoughts": Chapter Thirteen (1971, in the sixtieth year of the Republic of China, published in China Times)
"Shining Stars in the Sky": Chapter 9 (1969, 58 years of the Republic of China)
"A Dream in the Garden": Part 3 (1966, December 55th of the Republic of China)
"Winter Night": Chapter 11 (1970, fifty-ninth year of the Republic of China)
"State Funeral": Chapter Fourteen (1971, sixty years of the Republic of China)

When Mr. Bai wrote these chapters, he was in the United States. Some commented, "When Bai Xianyong created his "New Yorker" series in the United States, he began to have a conscious awareness of the "destiny" of man" [Note 3].

Indeed, if you have read "Suddenly Looking Back", Mr. Bai has this self-report:

After going to the country for a long time, I feel nostalgic for the culture of my own country, so I started "The New Yorker" and later "Taipei People". [Note 4]

"Taipei People" was created under such circumstances.

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Most of the protagonists of "Taipei People" came to or fled to Taiwan because of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, whether they were soldiers, teachers, or civilians. But most of the protagonists live more or less in a "space" created by themselves. This "space" can be virtual, such as "memory"; it can be real, such as "environment"; some are forced to be trapped, and some are voluntarily trapped. And these 14 short stories, like "Dubliners", are interrelated, the most obvious being "Forever Yin Xueyan" and "The Last Night of Jin Taiban", the two protagonists are both from Shanghai Paramount (Note: Actually Will they know each other?)'s courtesan. "Liang Fu Yin", "State Funeral", "Sui Chu" are all from the background of the national army.

Mr. Bai's 14 articles each have their own characteristics, and it is difficult to choose. If I had to choose, I would choose "Eternal Yin Xueyan", "A Dream in the Garden", and "Winter Night".

Let's talk about "Winter Night" first. The story tells that Yu Qianlei meets Wu Zhuguo, who has returned to Taiwan from the United States. The two talked about the past. Seeing that Wu Zhuguo was so successful abroad, Yu Qianlei hoped to teach in the United States, even if it was just one or two years.

This one reminds me of "A Little Cloud" from The Dubliners. The stories are somewhat similar: they all meet with old friends, and one of them is a successful person in the eyes of the other; the protagonists are all eager to develop in other places, but they are not with me.

The ending part is a little different: Little Chandler, the protagonist of "A Twilight Cloud", is "he listened to the child's sobbing getting smaller and smaller; tears of remorse could not help but come out of his eyes." Growing up, I think of a poem that was submitted to a magazine back then:

Professor Yu shook his very bald head and smiled a little embarrassedly. (page 216)

Although the ways of ending the two articles are different, the ending is still the same: the future of the two will remain the same and will not change. As in the end of "Winter Nights":

The winter night in Taipei is getting deeper and deeper, but the cold rain outside the window is still falling. (page 217)

Although little Chandler and Professor Yu are talented, they can't show it. Their future life will not see a bright life again, just endless cold nights, which is indeed a pity.

"Forever Yin Xueyan" is a short story that is hard to forget after reading it. Every paragraph of the novel begins with "Yin Xueyan", and each paragraph describes how beautiful Yin Xueyan is, so beautiful that she can't feel her getting old; how popular she is, how she walks among men and women; from Shanghai After coming to Taipei, many political and business people still come to her house to have fun.

When I read this again this time, I will think of Mrs. Liang of Eileen Chang's "The First Incense". But Yin Xueyan's wrist is much stronger than Mrs. Liang. You won't see Yin Xueyan's unhappy expression in the text. Every corner she goes to, like a fairy, blesses everyone:

Yin Xueyan also went over as usual, using a tone full of sympathy to comfort them. At this time, Yin Xueyan's words were as awe-inspiring as an oracle. At the sparrow table, a person's fate is often out of control, and the guests all ask Yin Xueyan's rhetoric to restore their confidence and strengthen their ambitions. Yin Xueyan stood aside, holding the golden-mouthed three nines, slowly puffing out smoke rings, and looked at her group of proud, frustrated, old, prime-aged, once all-powerful, and once peerless with a pitying look. The guests, fanatical killing each other, butchering each other. (page 9)

The people who came to Yin Xueyan's mansion were a group of "paralyzed" people: they were still thinking about the past—

... The people who come and go, even though some are outdated, but they have their identity and their style, so when they enter the Yin Mansion, everyone feels that they are important, even if it is a title that was abolished more than ten years ago. ... (page 7)

Yin Xueyan should be the most successful protagonist in the whole book, and the "winner" after coming to Taiwan: there are no negative words such as forced and sad in the text. The whole thing is full of gorgeous images. However, Yin Xueyan and her world have only been "moved" from Shanghai to Taipei, and their life has not changed. In fact, they still remain in a state of "paralysis": the three words "forever" are euphemistically called "eternal". The angle is "frozen", her life, to a certain extent, is stuck in the era of Paramount, and has not changed due to the environment.

Which is good or bad? I'm afraid only she knows.

The third chapter is "A Dream in the Garden". The story tells that Mrs. Qian visited Mrs. Dou at the Dou mansion, because Mrs. Dou held a party and could not invite the generals and some of the generals' wives. Their party is mainly singing. When Madam Qian listened to "The Garden", she reminded her of a past event.

There are many highlights in this short story -

1. Mrs. Qian's past: Every time she encounters a person and every event, there will be fragments of Mrs. Qian's past, which spells out her past: She originally sang, and married an older General Qian at the age of 20. Filling the house, just because she sang "The Garden of Dreams" well.
2. Mrs. Qian's experience: Mrs. Qian met Jiang Biyue at a party. Jiang Biyue robbed the "fiancé" who gave her sister a betrothal gift that year; this brought back Madam Qian's same experience.
3. The relationship between Staff Officer Cheng and Mrs. Dou is compared with Adjutant Zheng Yanqing and Mrs. Qian.
4. The song "Walking in the Garden" overlaps with memories: while Mrs. Xu was singing, Mrs. Qian was recalling the clip of going out with Zheng Yanqing. The entire sequence is full of sexuality: copper spurs, white horses, birch, sunshine (white). Madam Qian "survives" only once, but her beautiful dream was ruined by her sister. The wonderful thing is that while reading Mrs. Qian's recollections, readers also constantly "hear" the scene where Mrs. Qian watched her sister steal someone, which affected her singing - not so high-pitched, hoarse, etc. These words, not only did not "destroy" the continuity of that kind of memory, but even served as a foil. The section of "Walking to the Garden" is exactly the moment of Du Liniang's beautiful dream, which is in contrast to Madam Qian's dream.

Mrs. Qian was reluctant to sing "A Dream", but she actually expressed that she had woken up from her dream and did not want to face it again.

From the moment Mrs. Qian stepped into Dou's mansion, the reader is like watching Mrs. Qian's "revolving lantern": not a dying "revolving lantern", but a physical "revolving lantern": old husband and young wife, sexless marriage; There was "hope", but it was snatched away in front of her eyes. In the end, only the general's wife on the "title" was left. Although Mrs. Qian has woken up from a dream, her life has entered a state of "death".

As a digression, Mr. Ouyang Zi's book "The Swallow in Front of Wang Xietang" has an in-depth analysis of the work "Taipei People" [Note 6], you can read it if you are interested.

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Because I read "Dubliners" first and "Taipei" later, I always feel that the two books are very similar. If you enter the names of these two books in a search site, it is not difficult to find that many scholars/readers compare the two books. Even Wikipedia has this paragraph. However, Mr. Bai does not agree that "Taipei Man" is like "Dubliner Man" [Note 5]. Of course, Mr. Bai has a combination of Chinese and foreign literature, so his writing combines the two.

The Dubliners that Joyce described are in a state of "paralysis" (paralysis): a numbness to reality, no matter how corrupt the regime and religion may be.

The Tokyo men described by Kawabata Yasunari also have "paralysis" (stroke): because after the defeat in World War II, the only goal of the men was shattered, and it was impossible to learn from such a situation. Shimaki Shunzo is such a person. Although he could survive the war, the life after the defeat could not make him "survive". And the women, after going through a "life without men" (most of the men were dragged to war), slowly built a life without men. Keiko is an example.

As for the protagonists in "Taipei People", they are also in a state of "paralysis": their memories still remain in the days before they arrived in Taipei, and even their behaviors remain in the past. Zhu Qing in "A Hand of Green" chooses himself Give up and bury themselves in a certain "time and space"; Wang Xiong of "The Bloody Red Rhododendron" and Mr. Lu of "Hanaqiao Rongji" have been living in the "dream" created by themselves (paralysis) until After the dream is extinguished, the core hidden in the depths - the soul is also broken, and as a result, it becomes another person.

Five years ago, I believe no one would have predicted that today there will be major epidemics and wars, and facing the prospect is like "paralysis". What these three books brought to me was, how do people living in that era face their lives? Whether you can't survive (paralysis, stroke, paralysis), or still try to face the road ahead, even if there are many hardships ahead.

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[Note 1] Xia Zhiqing "On Bai Xianyong"

[Note 2] Yang Fuling, "The Invocation of Historical Memory and the Dissolution of National Identity: A Commentary on Bai Xianyong's "Taipei People" http://www.srcs.nctu.edu.tw/joyceliu/TaiwanLit/online_papers/BorShianYeong.html

[Note 3] Xie Qijun "Bai Xianyong turns silent pain into words"
https://www.gvm.com.tw/article/6704

[Note 4] <Suddenly looking back>
https://www.b111.net/novel/46/46797/4259972.html

[Note 5] Tao Ran "Bai Xianyong Becomes a Family" http://paper.wenweipo.com/2002/12/11/OT0212110031.htm

[Note 6] Ouyangzi, "The Swallow in front of Wang Xietang"
http://www.haodoo.net/?M=book&P=1142

"Taipei People" (from blog)
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010905530