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虎爺

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獲獎無數、被視為新世代小說作家中的佼佼者的吳明益,本書是他榮獲《聯合報》文學獎的首獎小說作品<虎爺>,以類人類學手法看「迷信」,保留了鄉土在文壇的一線生機。故事不落俗套,有新世代的疲懶、毫不在乎的況味,抵銷了鄉土、後設文學的俗濫概念、訴求,也將「後設」這樣高蹈的概念拉到和原來鄉野俗譚巧妙結合,產生新的感覺。採用非全知觀點詮釋了民俗本身的不可解,切入點十分有趣……它不強調七○年代鄉土的意識形態,使對設計本身反而產生更大的興趣。

《聯合報》文學獎首獎作品
知名作家 李昂、彭小妍、范銘茹專文推薦。

243 pages

Published January 1, 2003

15 people want to read

About the author

Wu Ming-Yi

19 books266 followers
Writer, painter, designer, photographer, literary professor, butterfly scholar, environmental activist, traveler and blogger rolled into one, Wu Ming-Yi is very much a modern Renaissance Man. Over the last decade, he has produced an impressive body of work, especially with his fiction and nature writing.

Wu Ming-Yi (b.1971) studied advertising at Fu-Jen Catholic University and has a PhD in Chinese Literature from National Central University. He has been teaching literature and creative writing at Dong Hwa University since 2000 and is now Professor of the Department of Chinese.

Wu’s literary reputation was first established by his nature writing. In THE BOOK OF LOST BUTTERFLIES (2000) and THE WAY OF BUTTERFLIES (2003), he chronicles his lifelong fascination with this beautiful creature and contemplates the invisible bond between man and nature. He wrote, designed, and provided drawings and photographs for the books, as if crafting works of art. Both books made the “Best of the Year” lists, with THE WAY OF BUTTERFLIES winning China Times’ Open Book Award and being chosen as one of the ten most influential books by Kingstore Bookstore.

In 2006, juggling academic life and the need for a period of uninterrupted time for his writing and traveling, Wu decided to resign from his teaching post. This is unheard of in a country where almost no one can make a living writing full-time and many would fight for a stable teaching job. In the end, Dong Hwa University gave Wu a year of sabbatical leave – they didn't want to lose him.

A year later, Wu published two books: his third collection of nature writing, SO MUCH WATER SO CLOSE TO HOME, and his debut novel, ROUTES IN THE DREAM. DREAM re-imagines Taiwan’s complicated history as a Japanese colony and examines the relationship between fathers and sons, memory and dreams. Hailed as a groundbreaking work of literary historical fiction, it was nominated for every major award and was chosen as one of the ten best Chinese-language novels of the year by Asian Weekly magazine (along with Ai Mi’s Hawthorn Tree Forever, Liu Zhenyun’s My Name Is Liu Yuejin, and Dai Sijie’s Once on a Moonless Night) . Wu was the only Taiwanese author on the list.

It is his eco-fantasy novel THE MAN WITH THE COMPOUND EYES (2011), however, that has gained Wu international recognition, with major English and French translations appearing in 2013 and 2014. A “Taiwanese Life of Pi”, it is an ambitious exploration of Taiwan's island identity, the cost of environmental degradation, and how humans make sense of the world around them, at once poetic, philosophical and far-reaching. It has already caught the attention of major writers in the genre such as Ursula K. Le Guin.

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
4 reviews3 followers
March 8, 2023
This story worthy of attention. The text introduces the Taiwanese tradition of lion dancing in a very interesting way, in a dialogue between the narrator “I” and the interviewer “you”.

When a bunch of friends in the military on the New Year’s Eve decide to raise some money for their division (not enough funds to fix equipment and build a Karaoke Room), they decide to go to the countryside as a dance troupe. And during that event something mysterious happens: the Tiger God takes possession of a medium...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

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