Taiwan Culture in the New Millennium: A Conversation with Two Cultural Figures

The UCLA Center for Chinese Studies presents a roundtable with screenwriter and novelist Chu Tien-wen, and novelist, poet, and naturalist Liu Ke-shiang.

Moderator: Professor Shu-mei Shih (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures)

CHU TIEN-WEN 朱天文 is a prominent novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. She has published more than a dozen books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and film scripts. She has been awarded numerous literary prizes and is recipient of the best screenplay award at both the Venice and Tokyo film festivals. Chu is well-known for her longstanding collaboration with film director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who has produced some of the most important works of contemporary Chinese-language cinema. Her most highly acclaimed works of fiction are Fin de Siècle Splendor and Notes of a Desolate Man. She published her first novel at the age of sixteen and established San San Publishing Company during her college years where she served as Editor in Chief. Among her major works are Growing Up (1983), The Boys from Fengkuei (1983), A Summer at Grandpas (1984), Dust in the Wind (1986), Daughter of the Nile (1987), A City of Sadness (1988), The Puppetmaster (1993) and Good Men, Good Women (1995), Flower of Shanghai (1998), Millennium Mambo (2001) and Café Lumiere (2004).  Her two screenplays for Growing Up and Good Men, Good Women helped her win Taiwan’s 22nd and 32nd Golden Horse Awards for best adapted screenplay. She was also awarded the 22nd Golden Horse Award for best original screenplay based on her 1985 novel, The Time to Live and the Time to Die. Ms. Chu received a degree in English from Tamkang University.

LIU KE-SHIANG 劉克襄, nicknamed "bird man," is a novelist, poet, and naturalist. In his earlier years, Liu explored Taiwan's naturalist style of writing by basing the subject of his essays on birds. In his numerous years of essay creation, Liu experimented with various literary forms and genres ranging from the study of insects and plants to the discourse of the history of geography. His recent works incorporate the themes of leisure and travel, the examination of ancient roads and the study wild herbs, fruits and vegetables. He has published over forty poems, essays, novels, and travel guidebooks including Swimming Downstream (1982), Natural Journeys (1991), The Song of the Little Green Mountain (1995), The Happy Green Backpack (1998), Getting Lost for a Day in a Small Town (2005), The Dejected Apple (2006) and Mountain Patrol (2008). Liu earned a degree in journalism from the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan.