Land of Ghosts
 |
Description
Book Introduction
2020 Taiwan's Two Major Literary Awards
Winner of the Golden Ding Award for Literature and the Golden Ding Award for the Million Dollars!
A masterpiece by Chen Sihong, a young master representing Taiwanese literature!
The full-length novel 『Land of Ghosts』 by young Taiwanese master Chen Sihong, which is being introduced in Korea for the first time, has been published by Minumsa.
The masterpiece, "Land of Ghosts," which depicts the painful modern history of Taiwan centered around a single family, won the "Golden Award for Literature and Books" and the "Golden Award for Million Years", two of the biggest literary awards in Taiwan. It was also published in 12 languages and became a New York Times bestseller.
"Land of Ghosts" traces the history of the Chen family and directly and indirectly reveals Taiwan's sad historical background.
Author Tian Sihong was born and raised in an environment very similar to that of Tian Hong in the novel.
Born the ninth son of a farming family, he lived as a gay man and witnessed the Taiwanese government persecute and arrest many people on various grounds, including homosexuality.
In the novel, the incident in which the two owners of the 'Mingle' bookstore and another character are arrested by the police reveals this historical background.
The love story between the protagonist Tianhong and his German lover T unfolds tragically against the backdrop of neo-Nazi-infested Germany.
In today's Taiwanese literary world, there are so many sexual minority writers active in human rights work that there is even a term called "comrade literature" that tells the stories of sexual minorities, and author Chen Sihong is one of them.
Winner of the Golden Ding Award for Literature and the Golden Ding Award for the Million Dollars!
A masterpiece by Chen Sihong, a young master representing Taiwanese literature!
The full-length novel 『Land of Ghosts』 by young Taiwanese master Chen Sihong, which is being introduced in Korea for the first time, has been published by Minumsa.
The masterpiece, "Land of Ghosts," which depicts the painful modern history of Taiwan centered around a single family, won the "Golden Award for Literature and Books" and the "Golden Award for Million Years", two of the biggest literary awards in Taiwan. It was also published in 12 languages and became a New York Times bestseller.
"Land of Ghosts" traces the history of the Chen family and directly and indirectly reveals Taiwan's sad historical background.
Author Tian Sihong was born and raised in an environment very similar to that of Tian Hong in the novel.
Born the ninth son of a farming family, he lived as a gay man and witnessed the Taiwanese government persecute and arrest many people on various grounds, including homosexuality.
In the novel, the incident in which the two owners of the 'Mingle' bookstore and another character are arrested by the police reveals this historical background.
The love story between the protagonist Tianhong and his German lover T unfolds tragically against the backdrop of neo-Nazi-infested Germany.
In today's Taiwanese literary world, there are so many sexual minority writers active in human rights work that there is even a term called "comrade literature" that tells the stories of sexual minorities, and author Chen Sihong is one of them.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Part 1 I Can't See My Mom
1 First Townhouse 11
2 Squeeze through the cracks in the floor 21
3 Faces without Plastic Bags 32
4. Female family register member with the surname Cheon 37
5 The youngest on the Yangtao tree 51
6 The third daughter born with a good destiny 64
7 Ghost Words 76
8 The White House Without Daylight 85
9 Incense on the wall of the soy sauce factory 98
10 Thank you, Paris 109
11 Come here, come here 124
12 Neihu Janghwa Donghyanghoe 138
13 Soybean Oil Cicada 150
14 The light ship has already passed ten thousand mountains. 158
15 Will 172
Part 2: Tianhong Returns
16 Yongsing Swimming Pool 179
17 Going back home 193
18 Finding Fire 203
19 The Dark Night is Dead 217
20 McDonald's French Fries in 1984 229
21 Snake Soup 242
22 Berlin's autumn clings to my whole body 252
23 Ionic columns 265
24 Find more missing gloves 273
25 Grand Dreams, Light of Yongjing 285
26 Not in the mountains, not in the wind, 294
27 Qingdao Ma Cinema 307
28 Hippos are very dangerous. 320
29 All are wild swans 334
30 Digging out the red flower in the skin 344
Part 3 Don't Cry
31 Falling into the Labyrinth of Palmistry 355
32 I just came to practice dancing 362
33 This damn rain is like a thin needle 376
34 I was going to do it with a man 383
35 Japanese Vitamins 391
36 Sew the mouths of the five sisters together 404
37 On the roof were snakes, dragons, phoenixes, and tigers. 418
38 Holiness and impurity meet in his body 429
39 Going for a swim in the sea with the neighbor's cat in your arms 438
40 The best thing was to hear about Paris 448
41 U-995 455
42 If I hadn't said anything 462
43 Two Wills in a Weatherproof Box at the White House 471
44 Police Arrest Gay Couple for Sexual Crime 475
45 Where does the wind begin? 481
Author's Note 491
Translator's Note 499
1 First Townhouse 11
2 Squeeze through the cracks in the floor 21
3 Faces without Plastic Bags 32
4. Female family register member with the surname Cheon 37
5 The youngest on the Yangtao tree 51
6 The third daughter born with a good destiny 64
7 Ghost Words 76
8 The White House Without Daylight 85
9 Incense on the wall of the soy sauce factory 98
10 Thank you, Paris 109
11 Come here, come here 124
12 Neihu Janghwa Donghyanghoe 138
13 Soybean Oil Cicada 150
14 The light ship has already passed ten thousand mountains. 158
15 Will 172
Part 2: Tianhong Returns
16 Yongsing Swimming Pool 179
17 Going back home 193
18 Finding Fire 203
19 The Dark Night is Dead 217
20 McDonald's French Fries in 1984 229
21 Snake Soup 242
22 Berlin's autumn clings to my whole body 252
23 Ionic columns 265
24 Find more missing gloves 273
25 Grand Dreams, Light of Yongjing 285
26 Not in the mountains, not in the wind, 294
27 Qingdao Ma Cinema 307
28 Hippos are very dangerous. 320
29 All are wild swans 334
30 Digging out the red flower in the skin 344
Part 3 Don't Cry
31 Falling into the Labyrinth of Palmistry 355
32 I just came to practice dancing 362
33 This damn rain is like a thin needle 376
34 I was going to do it with a man 383
35 Japanese Vitamins 391
36 Sew the mouths of the five sisters together 404
37 On the roof were snakes, dragons, phoenixes, and tigers. 418
38 Holiness and impurity meet in his body 429
39 Going for a swim in the sea with the neighbor's cat in your arms 438
40 The best thing was to hear about Paris 448
41 U-995 455
42 If I hadn't said anything 462
43 Two Wills in a Weatherproof Box at the White House 471
44 Police Arrest Gay Couple for Sexual Crime 475
45 Where does the wind begin? 481
Author's Note 491
Translator's Note 499
Into the book
The land of ghosts was desolate.
So, do ghosts really exist?
There were countless goblins in the countryside, and most of them lived in people's mouths.
In front of this row of townhouses is a lush bamboo forest.
People said that you should never go near there because there was a female ghost flying around there.
The Bamboo Forest Woman Ghost is said to be a woman who was raped during the Japanese colonial period, and was chased out by her husband for breaking her chastity, and hanged herself in the bamboo forest.
From then on, she became a ghost and only seduced young men.
--- p.16
She turned over and lay face down on the cold floor, her eyes pressed against the crack in the floor.
Today is Chuseok, and it has already been two weeks since the ghost gates were opened, so ghosts will be wandering around freely.
She wondered if she could see hell through the cracks in the floor.
The gap was right next to her sewing machine.
Whenever she felt a surge of motivation in her life, she turned her head and looked down at the floor.
Every time that happened, I felt like the gap had widened a little, so I looked more closely.
I expected the gap to widen further.
Then one day, I felt like if I pushed myself into that gap, no one would find me.
--- p.22
She was the only daughter in the entire family who inherited her mother's Jungwonjeol Bodo (普渡) ritual.
Since she had participated in ancestral rites with her mother since she was young, she was well aware of the various taboos, ritual procedures, and methods that accompany large and small holidays and celebrations.
A large folding round table was spread out, and chicken, pork, duck, noodles, dried food, etc. were neatly arranged, then the table was placed outside the house with the table facing outward.
There should be a bowl of clean water in front of the round table, and a small towel should be submerged in the water.
It was to allow the ghosts passing by to wash their hands and feet and enjoy the feast prepared at the round table.
Three incense sticks were placed on each dish.
The more deprived the year was, the more abundant the food at the round table was.
They also burned the earthenware to keep the ghosts and spirits passing by from becoming depressed.
--- p.26
I don't remember that child's face at all.
But I remember everyone saying that she was the prettiest of the five sisters.
The year I married Achan, the matchmaker said she was the prettiest woman in town.
The prettiest daughter resembles Achan the most.
Her eyes were large, her chest was large, her eyebrows were thick, and her skin was white.
The two women resembled each other the most, but hated each other the most.
The murderer who killed my young daughter was my wife.
Fortunately, I forgot my daughter's face.
This also means that he has forgotten his wife's face.
--- p.35~36
She immediately apologized, thinking the other person was visually impaired.
Then the other person shouted even louder.
“What? Do you think I’m blind? I just told you.
I am a guide dog trainer.
How could I train dogs if I were blind? They need to be with me, so I can't leave them outside.
I know you're going to complain that they're not friendly to guide dogs."
The dogs were left inside the office because of the human's roar.
The child continued to cry, but she had no other way to solve the problem, so she returned to the copier.
I decided not to think about it too much.
A few hours later, the phone began ringing nonstop, with calls from people looking for a female family register member with the last name Cheon.
As soon as her number was connected, a torrent of abuse poured out.
Reporters also flocked to the area, looking for the 'female resident registration number with the last name Cheon' and aiming their microphones at her.
“Why do you reject guide dogs for the blind?”
--- p.45
He waited and waited for Sulae, and then he fell asleep.
I woke up and looked down and saw something red.
A dark-skinned man with his upper body exposed, wearing red shorts, was reading a book under a yangtao tree.
The man looked up and spoke to him.
“Are you the youngest of Asan?”
The red shorts continued to expand in his field of vision, gradually taking over his entire thoughts.
He was speechless just looking at the red shorts.
“Oh, no need to be surprised.
It's very safe here.
“The kids will never find you.”
Dear T, at that moment, I fell in love with the man in red shorts sitting under the Yangtao tree.
--- p.63
I am a ghost.
Isn't it quite appropriate for me, a ghost, to talk about ghosts? I'm dead.
But it still 'exists'.
Memory is my existence and the medium of circulation.
I exist through my memories and the memories of others.
It exists here, it exists on the spot, it exists here, it exists there.
I rely on memory and I live off of memory.
Where there are memories, where there are stories to tell, that is the place where I am and the history of oral tradition.
So I exist in people's throats, mouths, and tongues.
--- p.76
Numerous flyers and election posters were pasted up, partially obscuring the original picture.
He read each and every advertisement.
I can tell all kinds of fortunes.
Used car sales.
Car loans.
Sofa repair.
Factory direct.
Guava wholesale.
Divorce specialist.
We will catch you at the scene of adultery.
Specializing in partner introductions.
We give you plump breasts without surgery.
Water tank repair.
Septic tank cleaning.
I will accept your debt.
The West and Investment.
Vietnamese bride.
Believe in Jesus and receive eternal life… … .
In addition, numerous election posters were plastered all over the National Assembly and local council members, representatives of organizations, and sites.
The old poster fell to the floor and a new poster was put up in its place.
This kind of advertisement was his hometown.
All the suspicious signs of life—shamanism, underground finance, organized crime, matchmaking, political involvement, bribery—were all within this wall.
All advertisements had a phone number and recipient's name listed underneath.
You might find the answers to life in a phone call like this.
--- p.106
In front of the maple tree, someone was bowing down to God in thanksgiving.
It was the snake-catching man who lived next door.
The snake-catching man spent a lot of money to set up an outdoor stage under a tree.
A strip troupe of three sisters began to remove their sparkly outfits as they moved towards the trees on stage, eventually stripping them bare without leaving a single thread behind.
Although they were called 'three sisters', they were actually three generations of women: grandmother, mother, and granddaughter.
Strip shows have been passed down from generation to generation.
In small rural areas, they could be seen at every funeral or wedding.
The girl with the smallest head on stage was a classmate from the same elementary school as him.
She saw him downstage and shouted as she took off her clothes.
"Tian Tianhong, did you finish your math homework today? If you're done, show it to me."
Copy it for me! It was really hard.
I can never solve it!”
So, do ghosts really exist?
There were countless goblins in the countryside, and most of them lived in people's mouths.
In front of this row of townhouses is a lush bamboo forest.
People said that you should never go near there because there was a female ghost flying around there.
The Bamboo Forest Woman Ghost is said to be a woman who was raped during the Japanese colonial period, and was chased out by her husband for breaking her chastity, and hanged herself in the bamboo forest.
From then on, she became a ghost and only seduced young men.
--- p.16
She turned over and lay face down on the cold floor, her eyes pressed against the crack in the floor.
Today is Chuseok, and it has already been two weeks since the ghost gates were opened, so ghosts will be wandering around freely.
She wondered if she could see hell through the cracks in the floor.
The gap was right next to her sewing machine.
Whenever she felt a surge of motivation in her life, she turned her head and looked down at the floor.
Every time that happened, I felt like the gap had widened a little, so I looked more closely.
I expected the gap to widen further.
Then one day, I felt like if I pushed myself into that gap, no one would find me.
--- p.22
She was the only daughter in the entire family who inherited her mother's Jungwonjeol Bodo (普渡) ritual.
Since she had participated in ancestral rites with her mother since she was young, she was well aware of the various taboos, ritual procedures, and methods that accompany large and small holidays and celebrations.
A large folding round table was spread out, and chicken, pork, duck, noodles, dried food, etc. were neatly arranged, then the table was placed outside the house with the table facing outward.
There should be a bowl of clean water in front of the round table, and a small towel should be submerged in the water.
It was to allow the ghosts passing by to wash their hands and feet and enjoy the feast prepared at the round table.
Three incense sticks were placed on each dish.
The more deprived the year was, the more abundant the food at the round table was.
They also burned the earthenware to keep the ghosts and spirits passing by from becoming depressed.
--- p.26
I don't remember that child's face at all.
But I remember everyone saying that she was the prettiest of the five sisters.
The year I married Achan, the matchmaker said she was the prettiest woman in town.
The prettiest daughter resembles Achan the most.
Her eyes were large, her chest was large, her eyebrows were thick, and her skin was white.
The two women resembled each other the most, but hated each other the most.
The murderer who killed my young daughter was my wife.
Fortunately, I forgot my daughter's face.
This also means that he has forgotten his wife's face.
--- p.35~36
She immediately apologized, thinking the other person was visually impaired.
Then the other person shouted even louder.
“What? Do you think I’m blind? I just told you.
I am a guide dog trainer.
How could I train dogs if I were blind? They need to be with me, so I can't leave them outside.
I know you're going to complain that they're not friendly to guide dogs."
The dogs were left inside the office because of the human's roar.
The child continued to cry, but she had no other way to solve the problem, so she returned to the copier.
I decided not to think about it too much.
A few hours later, the phone began ringing nonstop, with calls from people looking for a female family register member with the last name Cheon.
As soon as her number was connected, a torrent of abuse poured out.
Reporters also flocked to the area, looking for the 'female resident registration number with the last name Cheon' and aiming their microphones at her.
“Why do you reject guide dogs for the blind?”
--- p.45
He waited and waited for Sulae, and then he fell asleep.
I woke up and looked down and saw something red.
A dark-skinned man with his upper body exposed, wearing red shorts, was reading a book under a yangtao tree.
The man looked up and spoke to him.
“Are you the youngest of Asan?”
The red shorts continued to expand in his field of vision, gradually taking over his entire thoughts.
He was speechless just looking at the red shorts.
“Oh, no need to be surprised.
It's very safe here.
“The kids will never find you.”
Dear T, at that moment, I fell in love with the man in red shorts sitting under the Yangtao tree.
--- p.63
I am a ghost.
Isn't it quite appropriate for me, a ghost, to talk about ghosts? I'm dead.
But it still 'exists'.
Memory is my existence and the medium of circulation.
I exist through my memories and the memories of others.
It exists here, it exists on the spot, it exists here, it exists there.
I rely on memory and I live off of memory.
Where there are memories, where there are stories to tell, that is the place where I am and the history of oral tradition.
So I exist in people's throats, mouths, and tongues.
--- p.76
Numerous flyers and election posters were pasted up, partially obscuring the original picture.
He read each and every advertisement.
I can tell all kinds of fortunes.
Used car sales.
Car loans.
Sofa repair.
Factory direct.
Guava wholesale.
Divorce specialist.
We will catch you at the scene of adultery.
Specializing in partner introductions.
We give you plump breasts without surgery.
Water tank repair.
Septic tank cleaning.
I will accept your debt.
The West and Investment.
Vietnamese bride.
Believe in Jesus and receive eternal life… … .
In addition, numerous election posters were plastered all over the National Assembly and local council members, representatives of organizations, and sites.
The old poster fell to the floor and a new poster was put up in its place.
This kind of advertisement was his hometown.
All the suspicious signs of life—shamanism, underground finance, organized crime, matchmaking, political involvement, bribery—were all within this wall.
All advertisements had a phone number and recipient's name listed underneath.
You might find the answers to life in a phone call like this.
--- p.106
In front of the maple tree, someone was bowing down to God in thanksgiving.
It was the snake-catching man who lived next door.
The snake-catching man spent a lot of money to set up an outdoor stage under a tree.
A strip troupe of three sisters began to remove their sparkly outfits as they moved towards the trees on stage, eventually stripping them bare without leaving a single thread behind.
Although they were called 'three sisters', they were actually three generations of women: grandmother, mother, and granddaughter.
Strip shows have been passed down from generation to generation.
In small rural areas, they could be seen at every funeral or wedding.
The girl with the smallest head on stage was a classmate from the same elementary school as him.
She saw him downstage and shouted as she took off her clothes.
"Tian Tianhong, did you finish your math homework today? If you're done, show it to me."
Copy it for me! It was really hard.
I can never solve it!”
--- p.159
Publisher's Review
Old memories bring back ghosts.
They never left our side for even a moment.
Yongjing, a remote rural village in central Taiwan.
A man returns to this quiet village, now in decline.
Tian Hong, the seventh and youngest son of the Tian family, returned to China after serving time in prison for killing his homosexual lover in Germany.
A quiet father who devoted his life to feeding his family of nine.
My mother is illiterate, but she has a blunt personality, is very talkative, and is well-versed in all kinds of Taiwanese superstitions and ritual customs.
And five daughters born just to see their son, and finally a brother born after him.
These are the people of the Tian family, Tian Hong's family.
In the 1980s, as a development boom swept through Yongjing, a town where all sorts of superstitions were alive and well, the Cheon family, who had been living in an old three-story house, moved into a newly built townhouse.
Near the townhouses built by clearing away an old forest, there is a bamboo grove where the ghost of a woman raped and killed by the Japanese army is said to possess men, a rotting stream where dead animals are dumped, a shrine dedicated to all kinds of gods and ghosts, and an orchard filled with the fragrance of Yangtao fruit.
Young Tianhong and her five older sisters grew up here, enduring difficult and arduous days, separate from the development of Taiwan, which began to enjoy high economic growth.
The eldest sister, Sumei, barely finished middle school and got a job at a textile factory to escape her mother's burden.
There she falls in love with a man who drives a forklift, they have a child and get married.
Her hard-working husband loses all of Sumei's savings to gambling, and sets up an orchid garden, but this too proves unsuccessful. Finally, he buys a small mountain to spend his old age in, but this mountain collapses in an earthquake that hits Taiwan.
Sumei's only hope, who earns a living by sewing and doing handicrafts, is to see her husband die with her own eyes before she dies.
Second, Suri barely passed the civil service exam and is now working as a civil servant in Taipei, leading a boring life.
Her husband, a great man who is just as dull and boring as her daily life, and the 'real' citizens she encounters every day.
One day, she gets into an altercation with a citizen who brought a guide dog to the local government office, and the scene is leaked on the Internet, leading to her being criticized.
Third, Su-ching is the most beloved daughter in the family and the proudest daughter who studied well and entered Taipei University, but she knows very well that she has nothing special about herself.
Through her fourth older sister's husband, a wealthy man, she is introduced to a news anchor and ends up marrying him, living in a luxurious environment that others envy. However, her husband is actually a hypocritical and dangerous man who abuses his wife.
The fourth daughter, Suje, marries the eldest son of the Wang family, who became wealthy while doing business with her father.
In fact, the bride was supposed to be the fifth and most beautiful of the sisters, but Su Jie pushed her younger sister out and took her place, becoming the mistress of the 'White House', the largest mansion in Yongjing.
However, after the fifth child dies under mysterious circumstances, Su-je becomes mentally unstable and locks himself in his room, not coming out for a long time.
The time when Tianhong returned to Yongjing after killing his lover T in Germany was the Zhongyuan Festival.
In this hot season, when the ghost gates are open and all kinds of ghosts appear.
Only my eldest sister, Sumei, remains in the old townhouse.
Upon hearing the news that Tianhong had returned, the second and third older sisters also decided to come here.
But there are other guests in this house.
These are two ghosts that appear through narration in the novel.
Who are these people?
What will happen at the Chungwonjeol ancestral rites when the dead and the living gather together?
A masterpiece of Taiwanese "comrade literature" created by LGBTQ writers.
When we think of a country that is both close and far, Japan often comes to mind, but when we talk about the trajectory of history and the hardships its people have endured as a result, Taiwan is a country that is more similar to Korea.
During the time when the indigenous people lived, it was occupied by the Ming general Zheng Chenggong and his group who rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, and in modern times, it was under Japanese colonial rule for 50 years.
After Japan withdrew, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces, defeated in the Chinese Civil War, occupied Taiwan and massacred approximately 28,000 citizens who had been protesting against the Nationalist Party (the events of this "February 28 Incident" are well depicted in Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien's masterpiece, A City of Sadness).
The one-party dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and his family and the Kuomintang lasted until 1987 under martial law, ending with the birth of the Democratic Progressive Party. However, even up until this time, white terrorism was carried out in Taiwan for various reasons, and many people disappeared or were imprisoned.
"Land of Ghosts" traces the history of the Chen family and directly and indirectly reveals Taiwan's sad historical background.
Author Tian Sihong was born and raised in an environment very similar to that of Tian Hong in the novel.
Born the ninth son of a farming family, he lived as a gay man and witnessed the Taiwanese government persecute and arrest many people on various grounds, including homosexuality.
In the novel, the incident in which the two owners of the 'Mingle' bookstore and another character are arrested by the police reveals this historical background.
The love story between the protagonist Tianhong and his German lover T unfolds tragically against the backdrop of neo-Nazi-infested Germany.
In today's Taiwanese literary world, there are so many sexual minority writers active in human rights work that there is even a term called "comrade literature" that tells the stories of sexual minorities, and author Chen Sihong is one of them.
The affinity with Korea does not stop at historical background.
The novel's style, emotions, and ending also feel very close.
The story centers around family, and the deep affection and hatred for each other coexist, and the laughter and tears that permeate the process also directly touch the reader's skin.
The five sisters, who were born unwanted due to the deep-rooted preference for sons, which is no different from Korea's, experience all kinds of sorrows and hardships, which are depicted with sadness and warmth through the younger brother's eyes.
The author's skill in portraying the sorrow and resentment of a family who are the closest enemies yet have no choice but to embrace each other in the end makes us realize that 'we are already ghosts, and that you who are next to us cannot help but be a ghost too, and above all, that we must love and forgive those ghosts.'
Taiwan's exotic customs and landscapes are also vividly portrayed in the story of the nine siblings.
There are shrines and temples dedicated to all kinds of gods, strict customs for treating ancestors and ghosts, beautiful natural environments and mouth-watering foods, and among them, the unique customs of rural villages unfold like a kaleidoscope, creating a lively and exciting atmosphere.
The process of uncovering who killed whom and the true meaning behind those deaths is worthy of a masterpiece crime novel.
The land of ghosts, a strange and ominous land where only pain and wounds exist, is summoned by author Tian Sihong through necromancy, comforting each and every one of them before returning them to their rightful place.
The reason this young writer was awarded one of Taiwan's two major literary awards is likely due to his talent for capturing the intersection of history and the individual and depicting it with remarkable completeness.
Author's Note
I started writing this book in Berlin in July 2018 and finished it in April 2019.
I constantly dug into Yongjing's memories.
I always wanted to run away from there, but instead I kept writing about it.
I thought I would burst into tears after writing everything, but after writing the last sentence, I, a crybaby ghost who loves to cry, didn't shed a tear.
Everything before my eyes was just unstable and unpredictable.
I lowered my head and examined my body.
Skin, bones, and flesh slowly blurred from sight, gradually becoming transparent.
I was so afraid that I would really turn into a ghost that I quickly sent the manuscript to the editor, then climbed into bed and went to sleep.
I slept very comfortably.
Because I knew very well that ghosts could appear at this time.
Yongjing quietly entered my room in Berlin and lay down next to me.
_Cheon Si-hong
They never left our side for even a moment.
Yongjing, a remote rural village in central Taiwan.
A man returns to this quiet village, now in decline.
Tian Hong, the seventh and youngest son of the Tian family, returned to China after serving time in prison for killing his homosexual lover in Germany.
A quiet father who devoted his life to feeding his family of nine.
My mother is illiterate, but she has a blunt personality, is very talkative, and is well-versed in all kinds of Taiwanese superstitions and ritual customs.
And five daughters born just to see their son, and finally a brother born after him.
These are the people of the Tian family, Tian Hong's family.
In the 1980s, as a development boom swept through Yongjing, a town where all sorts of superstitions were alive and well, the Cheon family, who had been living in an old three-story house, moved into a newly built townhouse.
Near the townhouses built by clearing away an old forest, there is a bamboo grove where the ghost of a woman raped and killed by the Japanese army is said to possess men, a rotting stream where dead animals are dumped, a shrine dedicated to all kinds of gods and ghosts, and an orchard filled with the fragrance of Yangtao fruit.
Young Tianhong and her five older sisters grew up here, enduring difficult and arduous days, separate from the development of Taiwan, which began to enjoy high economic growth.
The eldest sister, Sumei, barely finished middle school and got a job at a textile factory to escape her mother's burden.
There she falls in love with a man who drives a forklift, they have a child and get married.
Her hard-working husband loses all of Sumei's savings to gambling, and sets up an orchid garden, but this too proves unsuccessful. Finally, he buys a small mountain to spend his old age in, but this mountain collapses in an earthquake that hits Taiwan.
Sumei's only hope, who earns a living by sewing and doing handicrafts, is to see her husband die with her own eyes before she dies.
Second, Suri barely passed the civil service exam and is now working as a civil servant in Taipei, leading a boring life.
Her husband, a great man who is just as dull and boring as her daily life, and the 'real' citizens she encounters every day.
One day, she gets into an altercation with a citizen who brought a guide dog to the local government office, and the scene is leaked on the Internet, leading to her being criticized.
Third, Su-ching is the most beloved daughter in the family and the proudest daughter who studied well and entered Taipei University, but she knows very well that she has nothing special about herself.
Through her fourth older sister's husband, a wealthy man, she is introduced to a news anchor and ends up marrying him, living in a luxurious environment that others envy. However, her husband is actually a hypocritical and dangerous man who abuses his wife.
The fourth daughter, Suje, marries the eldest son of the Wang family, who became wealthy while doing business with her father.
In fact, the bride was supposed to be the fifth and most beautiful of the sisters, but Su Jie pushed her younger sister out and took her place, becoming the mistress of the 'White House', the largest mansion in Yongjing.
However, after the fifth child dies under mysterious circumstances, Su-je becomes mentally unstable and locks himself in his room, not coming out for a long time.
The time when Tianhong returned to Yongjing after killing his lover T in Germany was the Zhongyuan Festival.
In this hot season, when the ghost gates are open and all kinds of ghosts appear.
Only my eldest sister, Sumei, remains in the old townhouse.
Upon hearing the news that Tianhong had returned, the second and third older sisters also decided to come here.
But there are other guests in this house.
These are two ghosts that appear through narration in the novel.
Who are these people?
What will happen at the Chungwonjeol ancestral rites when the dead and the living gather together?
A masterpiece of Taiwanese "comrade literature" created by LGBTQ writers.
When we think of a country that is both close and far, Japan often comes to mind, but when we talk about the trajectory of history and the hardships its people have endured as a result, Taiwan is a country that is more similar to Korea.
During the time when the indigenous people lived, it was occupied by the Ming general Zheng Chenggong and his group who rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, and in modern times, it was under Japanese colonial rule for 50 years.
After Japan withdrew, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces, defeated in the Chinese Civil War, occupied Taiwan and massacred approximately 28,000 citizens who had been protesting against the Nationalist Party (the events of this "February 28 Incident" are well depicted in Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien's masterpiece, A City of Sadness).
The one-party dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and his family and the Kuomintang lasted until 1987 under martial law, ending with the birth of the Democratic Progressive Party. However, even up until this time, white terrorism was carried out in Taiwan for various reasons, and many people disappeared or were imprisoned.
"Land of Ghosts" traces the history of the Chen family and directly and indirectly reveals Taiwan's sad historical background.
Author Tian Sihong was born and raised in an environment very similar to that of Tian Hong in the novel.
Born the ninth son of a farming family, he lived as a gay man and witnessed the Taiwanese government persecute and arrest many people on various grounds, including homosexuality.
In the novel, the incident in which the two owners of the 'Mingle' bookstore and another character are arrested by the police reveals this historical background.
The love story between the protagonist Tianhong and his German lover T unfolds tragically against the backdrop of neo-Nazi-infested Germany.
In today's Taiwanese literary world, there are so many sexual minority writers active in human rights work that there is even a term called "comrade literature" that tells the stories of sexual minorities, and author Chen Sihong is one of them.
The affinity with Korea does not stop at historical background.
The novel's style, emotions, and ending also feel very close.
The story centers around family, and the deep affection and hatred for each other coexist, and the laughter and tears that permeate the process also directly touch the reader's skin.
The five sisters, who were born unwanted due to the deep-rooted preference for sons, which is no different from Korea's, experience all kinds of sorrows and hardships, which are depicted with sadness and warmth through the younger brother's eyes.
The author's skill in portraying the sorrow and resentment of a family who are the closest enemies yet have no choice but to embrace each other in the end makes us realize that 'we are already ghosts, and that you who are next to us cannot help but be a ghost too, and above all, that we must love and forgive those ghosts.'
Taiwan's exotic customs and landscapes are also vividly portrayed in the story of the nine siblings.
There are shrines and temples dedicated to all kinds of gods, strict customs for treating ancestors and ghosts, beautiful natural environments and mouth-watering foods, and among them, the unique customs of rural villages unfold like a kaleidoscope, creating a lively and exciting atmosphere.
The process of uncovering who killed whom and the true meaning behind those deaths is worthy of a masterpiece crime novel.
The land of ghosts, a strange and ominous land where only pain and wounds exist, is summoned by author Tian Sihong through necromancy, comforting each and every one of them before returning them to their rightful place.
The reason this young writer was awarded one of Taiwan's two major literary awards is likely due to his talent for capturing the intersection of history and the individual and depicting it with remarkable completeness.
Author's Note
I started writing this book in Berlin in July 2018 and finished it in April 2019.
I constantly dug into Yongjing's memories.
I always wanted to run away from there, but instead I kept writing about it.
I thought I would burst into tears after writing everything, but after writing the last sentence, I, a crybaby ghost who loves to cry, didn't shed a tear.
Everything before my eyes was just unstable and unpredictable.
I lowered my head and examined my body.
Skin, bones, and flesh slowly blurred from sight, gradually becoming transparent.
I was so afraid that I would really turn into a ghost that I quickly sent the manuscript to the editor, then climbed into bed and went to sleep.
I slept very comfortably.
Because I knew very well that ghosts could appear at this time.
Yongjing quietly entered my room in Berlin and lay down next to me.
_Cheon Si-hong
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Publication date: December 29, 2023
- Page count, weight, size: 504 pages | 532g | 140*210*23mm
- ISBN13: 9788937454820
- ISBN10: 8937454823
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