Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan [Paperback]

Ann C. Carver (Editor), Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558610189 | ISBN-13: 978-1558610187 | Publication Date: January 1, 1993

   This remarkable anthology introduces the short fiction of 14 writers, major figures in the literary movements of three generations, who represent a range of class, ethnic, age, and political perspectives. It is filled with "unexpected gems", writes Scarlet Cheng in Belles Lettres, including Lin Hai-yin's story of a woman suffering under a feudal system that dominated Old China; Chiang Hsiao-yun's optimistic solutions to problems of the elderly in the rapidly changing Taiwan of the 1980; and in between, a dozen richly diverse stories of aristocrats, comrades, wices, concubines, children, mothers, sexuality, rape, female initiation, and the tensions between traditional and modern life. "This is not western feminism with an Asian accent", says Bloomsbury Review, "but a description of one culture's reality...The woman protagonists survive both despite and because of their existence in a changing Taiwan." This book includes biographical headnotes, an introduction that addresses the literary movements represented, and an extensive bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These tales travel through emotional time, from the nearly feudal values of the 1920s and '30s to the alienated, questing attitudes of contemporary Taiwan. Several stories explore the pain of women under the old system: in "Candle," a forlorn wife retreats into illness when her husband brings home a beautiful concubine; a woman is raped in the story "In Liu Village," and her husband must wrestle with the traditional response of discarding her and his own feelings of love. The paranoia of the Maoist years is elegantly captured in "Chairman Mao Is a Rotten Egg," in which a young child's playful taunt leads his parents into a nightmare. Moving to the present day, tragedy results when a naive teenage girl tries to convince a boy that she is sexually sophisticated in "The Aftermath of the Death of a Junior High Coed." Unfortunately, the didactic summaries that precede each story detract from their impact. With its vibrant, tumultuous energy and its evocation of the contending lifestyles of a society in transition, this collection is best left to speak for itself. Carver is professor of English at the University of North Carolina, and Chang is assistant professor of Oriental languages and literature at the University of Texas.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558610189
• ISBN-13: 978-1558610187
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,627,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection, January 10, 2005

By 

Robert LaBarge "noisearchivist" (Mesa, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bamboo Shoots After The Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan (Hardcover)

The translations of stories here are very broad and well done, giving deep insight into the lives of Chinese women, and the impact these particular writers had on Taiwan (not every writer featured, like for instance Eileen Chang, was a Taiwan native or citizen...) Each story is prefaced by one of the editors, providing valuable points and cross-references to the other stories in the collection. Anyone with an interest in the Taiwanese experience should read these great works.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bamboo Shoots After the Rain, April 14, 2000

By 

Erin Barham - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan (Paperback)

This book provides the reader with great insight into different cultures of the far east. The stories vary in length from just a few pages, to some rather long stories. Each of the stories gives the reader great insight into some of the cultural expectations of the far east, and also the life people lead. From family expectations, to jobs, pretty much any aspect of life can be found in this book. The way it is put together is also rather different since all of the writers are women from a place that many people in the United States do not know a lot about. This book is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the life and culture of the far east. I would highly reccomend this to anyone!