Chung Li-ho

Chung Li-ho (Chinese: 鍾理和 (pinyin Zhong Lihe), Hakka transliteration: Chûng Lî-fò or Tsûng Li-fô) December 15, 1915 – August 4, 1960, was a writer from Taiwan famous mainly for fiction. He was a Liudui Hakka (Chinese: 六堆客家人), born in Gaoshu Township, Pingtung in 1915, who moved with his parents to a newly purchased fruit and coffee plantation in Meinong in around 1932. Eloping with a woman because their same-surname relationship was taboo in their community,^[1] he resided in Japanese-occupied China – Shenyang and Beijing – between 1938 and 1946. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 44^[2] in Meinong whilst revising his last and possibly finest work, a novella entitled "Rain" (Chinese: 雨).

Chung Li-ho
鍾理和
Born	6 November 1915 Gaoshu, Takao, Taiwan, Empire of Japan
Died	4 August 1960(1960-08-04) (aged 44)
Nationality	Republic of China
Occupation	Novelist

Legacy

There is a Chung Li-ho Museum, located in Meinong, Kaohsiung is dedicated to Chung. His life has been dramatized as China, My Native Land, a 1980 film directed by Li Hsing, featuring theme and other songs by Teresa Teng. Chung's eldest son, Chung Tieh-min [zh], was an award-winning writer of fiction and prose. The asteroid 237187 Zhonglihe, discovered by Xiangyao Hsiao and Ye Quan-Zhi at Lulin Observatory in 2008, was named in his memory.^[3] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 12 October 2011 (M.P.C. 76677).^[4]

See also

• Chung Li-ho Museum
• Literary Friends Communications

References

1. Han Chueng (31 July 2016). "Taiwan in Time: Fleeing to the old country for love". Taipei Times. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
2. Mu Qian (April 14, 2011). "Ode to a writer". China Daily.
3. "237187 Zhonglihe (2008 UA212)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
4. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 22 October 2018.

T. M. McClellan, “Home and the Land: the “native” fiction of Zhong Lihe”, Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese, 9.2 (December 2009): 154-182.

Zhong Lihe, From the Old Country: stories and sketches of China and Taiwan, Edited and translated by T. M. McClellan, Columbia University Press, 2014.

Zhong Tiemin 鍾鐵民 ed., Exploring a Literary Landscape: the Zhong Lihe Memorial Institute and its Environs 探訪鍾理和紀念館暨文學地景, Gaoxiong: Chunhui, 2010. ISBN 986632711-6 (bilingual volume, 99 pp., full Chinese text with English tr. by Tommy McClellan).

Lin Sheng Xiang 林生祥, 《大地書房：山歌、文學、鍾理和》 The Land is my Study: music inspired by the literature of Zhong Lihe, trees music and art + The Zhong Lihe Trust for Culture and Education, 2010 (Music album CD; insert lyrics and notes tr. Dr Tommy McClellan).

External links

• Media related to Chung Li-ho at Wikimedia Commons
• Digital museum of Chung Li-ho - a website and database built by the Taiwan government (in Chinese)