Chung Chao-cheng (;

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geogr ...

: Chûng Sau-chṳn; 20 January 1925 – 16 May 2020) was a Taiwanese

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hun ...

writer. Chung was born on 20 January 1925, in

Longtan District, Taoyuan Longtan District () is a rural district in southern Taoyuan City, Taiwan. Longtan is home to the headquarters of the Republic of China Army. The township is known for the Buddhist temple in the center of Longtan Lake and the large Bainien co ...

. Under Japanese rule, the subdivision was classified as a village by the name of Ryūtan, itself a part of Daikei, in

Shinchiku Prefecture was one of the administrative divisions of Taiwan during the Japanese era. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Taoyuan City, and Miaoli County. Population 1941 ( Showa 16) census *Total population: 838,011 **J ...

. His father was a schoolteacher and principal. Chung was sixth of ten siblings, and the only son. He enrolled successively at the and then the Changhua Normal School, and later studied at

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imper ...

, but did not complete a degree in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, due to a bout of malaria. He learned to speak

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/ Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 7 ...

at an early age, and was educated in the Japanese language. Chung taught at Longtan Elementary School until 1979, switching from Hakka to teaching in Mandarin at the request of the Kuomintang-led government. His knowledge of languages made Chung a member of the translingual generation. His first work was published in 1951, within the pages of the magazine ''Rambler''. His first novel appeared as a serial within ''

United Daily News ''United Daily News'' (UDN; ) is a newspaper published in Taiwan. It is considered to support the pan-Blue Coalition in its editorials. History UDN was founded in 1951 by Wang Tiwu as a merger of three newspapers, ''Popular Daily'' (全民� ...

'', and over the course of his career, Chung published over thirty novels. His literary output also includes many essays, over 150 short stories, and more than forty works translated from Japanese. Together with his contemporary

Yeh Shih-tao Yeh Shih-tao (; 1925 – 11 December 2008) was a pioneering Taiwanese writer and historian, who specialized in the literary history of Taiwan and the lives of ordinary Taiwanese people. He was considered a seminal figure in Taiwanese literar ...

, the pair is known as "North Chung South Yeh." He promoted

Taiwan nativist literature Taiwan nativist literature (). Xiangtu (鄉土), literally meaning the hometown soil, symbolizes nativism; and Wenxue (文學) is literature. It is a genre of Taiwanese literature derived from the New Literature Movement (台灣新文學運動) un ...

. Known as the doyen of Taiwanese literature, Chung's novel ''

The Dull Ice Flower ''The Dull Ice Flower'' (, literally translated as lupine flower) is a 1989 Taiwanese film based on the novel of the same title by Chung Chao-cheng. Dealing with education and other social issues in rural Taiwan in the deprived 1950s and early 1 ...

'' was adapted into a Golden Horse-winning film released in 1989. He was a recipient of both the and the , among others. Chung fell the week before his death, and subsequently lapsed in and out of consciousness. He died on 16 May 2020 at home in Taoyuan. Chung received the

Order of Brilliant Star Order of Brilliant Star () is a civilian order of the Republic of China (Taiwan) recognizing outstanding contributions to the development of the nation. The order is instituted in 1941 and can be awarded to both domestic and foreign nationals. O ...

with Grand Cordon in 2000 from the

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the fir ...

presidential administration. Lee's successor

Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whi ...

awarded Chung the

Order of Propitious Clouds The Order of Propitious Clouds () is a civilian order of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The center of the medal features a picture of clouds, as a token of auspiciousness. This order was instituted in 1941 and classified into nine ranks. As with ...

with Grand Cordon in 2004. Posthumously, the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon was conferred upon Chung, alongside a presidential citation from

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served a ...

References

External links

The Sound of Taiwan – Chung Chao-cheng, presented at the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chung, Chao-cheng 1925 births 2020 deaths Taiwanese male novelists Taiwanese people of Hakka descent Hakka writers Writers from Taoyuan City 20th-century Taiwanese writers 20th-century novelists Taiwanese schoolteachers 20th-century short story writers Taiwanese male short story writers Taiwanese translators Japanese–Chinese translators 20th-century essayists Taiwanese essayists National Taiwan University alumni Male essayists Recipients of the Order of Propitious Clouds Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star

See also

References

External links