Surviving Civilization: Rereading the History of Taiwan and Modernity

The novel Yu sheng 餘生 by Wu He 舞鶴 (Dancing Crane, the pen-name used by Ch’en Kuo-ch’eng 陳國城), first published in 1999 in Taiwan, has become something of a literary myth in certain circles, the work of a writer showered with prizes in the 1990s after re-emerging from ten years of reclusion in Tamsui. Born in Chiayi in 1951, Wu He lost his mother at 18 and began studying engineering at Cheng Kung University before transferring to the Chinese department in 1973. He was revealed to the literary s...