Chung Chao-cheng, the author of Lupins (respectfully known as “Old Mr. Chung” in academic circles), and his contemporary Yeh Shih-tao (1925–2008), writer of An Outline History of Taiwan Literature, were known in Taiwan’s literary world as “Yeh of the South and Chung of the North.” Yeh’s hometown was Tainan, while Chung hailed from the small Hakka community of Longtan in Taoyuan. In 2019 the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park opened in his hometown. It is built around themes from Chung’s literary work and has become a popular spot where visitors can engage with the author’s oeuvre.

Chung Chao-cheng’s former residence at No. 5 Nanlong Road is one of a group of Japanese-era buildings that served as living quarters for teachers at Longtan Elementary School. Today it is preserved as part of the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park.

The permanent exhibition in the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park relates the story of Chung’s life.

In Chung’s former residence there is a replica of the cypress-wood desk where he did his writing, allowing us to imagine him working back in the day.

Not thinking only of himself

Before entering the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park, let’s first take a look at Chung himself.

Chung is known as “the mother of Taiwan literature,” a phrase which originated with the author Dongfang Bai. In the biography of Chung written by his second son, Chung Yen-wei, there is a passage which reads: “Old Mr. Chung had no objections to this, but would occasionally grumble, ‘I’m clearly male, so how could I be the mother of anything?!’”

Nonetheless, there is a certain logic behind this ­title. Chung wrote prolifically throughout his life, writing more than 20 million Chinese characters by hand and producing major works in the roman-fleuve genre (“river novels”—a series of novels on the same theme) including the trilogies “Turbid Waters” and “The Taiwanese.” He also devoted a great deal of energy to guiding and supporting writers of younger generations and to promoting those of older generations, as well as to movements to revitalize the Hakka language and culture. Taoyuan-born author Chu Yu-hsun, in his book When They Were Not Writing Novels: Portraits of Novelists from Taiwan under Martial Law, crafted an apt and intriguing title for his chapter on Chung: “Because Chung Chao-cheng Didn’t Think Only of Himself.”

During his life, Chung was able to switch between Hakka, Japanese, Taiwanese Hokkien, and Mandarin. Born in the era of Japanese rule, he was 20 when the ROC government took control of Taiwan in 1945. It was only then that he began reading books in Chinese, and he was only able to transcend this linguistic barrier and write fluently in Mandarin after six years of dedicated study. At that time he began to submit writings to publications, but he suffered frequent rejections. In 1957 he wrote a letter from his home in Longtan to invite Taiwanese authors to create a monthly publication called The Literary Friends Newsletter, bringing together Taiwanese writers to discuss issues and learn more about the craft of writing from one another.

In 1960 Lin Hai-yin, then editor-in-chief of the literary supplement of the United Daily News news­paper, took a liking to Chung’s novel Lupins and began to serialize it in the paper. Thereafter Chung urged his fellow writers to try to seize opportunities in this literary format. He also was instrumental in encouraging the completion of novels including Dongfang Bai’s Sand in the Waves and Lee Chiao’s “Wintry Night” trilogy.

Chung not only encouraged new writers, but also, as described in Chu Yu-hsun’s book, carefully used his influence to help writers of older generations than himself. He edited collections of stories by Taiwanese writers and promoted the revival of works by older authors. He described it as “a strategy of crawling forward to occupy the stage, and then immediately sharing the stage with more Taiwanese writers.” It was because Old Mr. Chung did not think only of himself that Chu concluded: “He virtually single-handedly changed the direction of literature in Taiwan.”

Chung wrote a huge number of works, and was the first author in Taiwan to work in the “roman-fleuve” genre. The books on the shelf are a set of his collected works published by the Taoyuan City Government.

Longtan was once a major tea-producing area. Chung’s novel Lupins is set against the background of tea farming.

Cradle of postwar Taiwanese literature

Entering the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park, beside Longtan Elementary School, it turns out to be a group of Japanese-style staff quarters buildings where Chung lived when he was a teacher at the school.

Tsai Chi Min, who got involved in the work of planning and operating the park soon after completing his graduate degree, serves as our guide. “Chung lived here for 11 years, from 1956 to 1967.” There are three Japanese-style buildings preserved at the park. The first is curated on the theme of Lupins and its film version, The Dull-Ice Flower, which are so familiar to general public, while the second houses a permanent exhibition on Chung. “It offers a retrospective on Chung’s life, and is designed around the imagery of a river as a metaphor for his river novels.”

Chung was also an accomplished calligrapher, and the park displays scanned versions of his works. Tsai says that many people asked Chung to write inscriptions for them, and he always unstintingly complied.

The third building is where Chung actually lived. Then known as No. 5 Nanlong Road, it was where Chung wrote some of his most important works, including the “Turbid Waters” trilogy and Lupins. It can be considered “the cradle of postwar Taiwanese literature.” Inside is a replica of the cypress-wood desk where Chung wrote all his life, and which was purchased by his wife Zhang Jiumei with money she had saved from raising pigs and poultry.

Off to one side is a mimeograph machine found by the curators. When Chung organized The Literary Friends Newsletter, he gathered together the opinions of many people about various literary works, and duplicated the newsletter using stencils on a mimeograph machine. He then mailed the copies to group members. This was how the reading group operated.

Chung was an expert calligrapher with a bold and powerful style. He often wrote inscriptions expressing his hopes and expectations for younger writers.

A Buddhist pine tree stands vigorous and tall at the entrance to Longtan’s Wude Hall, which forms part of the Chung Chao-cheng Literary Park. The place is a quiet sanctuary in the small town.

Life in Chung’s hometown

After showing us the park, Tsai Chi Min leads us along Donglong Road, where we come to the Longtan Presbyterian Church. The Chung family were Christians, and from a young age Chung came here to attend services. In his book Under the Octagonal Tower, he mentions an “old missionary with a goatee beard who always told us the same stories that we had heard so many times before.” This passage describes Zhong Yamei, who was the first missionary to preach in Longtan. Continuing our tour, we find Longyuan Temple, a center of religious practice for local residents, which is dedicated to Shennong, the God of Agriculture. In his works Chung mentions the celebrations for the Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, and Ghost Festival at Longyuan Temple. Tsai relates: “Although the Chung family were Christians, when Chung was a month old his father brought him to the temple plaza and put on a banquet for his friends and neighbors.”

The main residential and commercial area of Longtan is long and narrow in shape, and by no means large. Longyuan Road runs through it, and is known as the “Old Street” by local residents. Locals divide Longyuan Road into upper and lower sections, with the dividing line at the former “First Market.” The upper street is the section that heads east to Longyuan Temple, while the lower street goes west to Longtan Lake. Chung depicted the upper and lower streets in his trilogies “The Taiwanese” and “Turbid Waters.”

The upper street has more commercial activity. It is where the Longxing Store, which has been in business for more than 80 years, is located. Songwu Ice Shop, founded in 1935, is where Chung often went to beat the summer heat in his youth. The shop serves scoops of traditionally flavored “snow ice” and sells handmade lemonade. It has a special place in local people’s memories. Another old shop that has survived is the Yuanchun Chinese Pharmacy, which still fills prescriptions based on medicinal divination strips drawn by worshipers at the Longyuan Temple, and is filled with the fragrance of herbal medicines. And across the street from the temple is the venerable beef noodle eatery Niurou Xiong, which was one of Chung’s favorite places to bring friends who came to town to visit.

Tsai Chi Min introduces one place after another to us as he helps us understand this lively commercial area, which was also where Chung used to take leisurely strolls. Turning into the former First Market, we hear that this place fell into disuse after a fire, but in 2016 a program was launched to transform the old market into the Lingtan Street Creative Hub, which is now home to many start-up businesses.

Longyuan Temple, dedicated to Shennong, is an important center of religious practice in Longtan. Chung’s books include descriptions of the celebrations here at the Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, and Ghost Festival.

The owner of the Yuanchun Chinese Pharmacy on Longyuan Road deftly demonstrates how to use a traditional cutter to slice medicinal herbs.

The Hsinchu Bus Company’s Longtan bus station, located on Beilong Road, is an important transportation hub linking Longtan with the outside world. It still preserves the layout it had in the era of Japanese rule.

Hometown settings

We return to Longtan Elementary School, where Tsai points out a small pathway opposite the school gate. “This is the lane that Old Mr. Chung always walked along on his way to and from work.”

In days gone by, when Chung wasn’t writing or reading, he would be at the theater watching movies. He arranged with the nearby theater (now defunct) that if friends came looking for him, they would project a notice reading “Visitors for Chung Chao-cheng” onto the screen. After this had happened several times, the theater figured that they might just as well keep the piece of glass on which the notice was written, rather than remaking it every time. Authors Chen Yingzhen (1937–2016) and Lee Chiao (b. 1934) both called on Chung at the theater in this way.

Walking on for a few minutes more we come to Longtan Lake, where the view becomes broader and more open. Longtan (which means “Dragon Lake”) was named after a large pond located in the area. In earlier times wild water caltrops grew in the pond, so it was called “Water Caltrop Pond” (Lingtanpi) by the locals and also “Spirit Pond” (also pronounced Lingtanpi). Chung’s 1973 novel Lingtan Heartbreak is set mainly at Longtan Lake.

Looking west from Longtan Lake we see Mt. Rugu, which Chung often mentioned in his writings. Tsai Chi Min explains that people from Longtan regard Mt. Rugu in the same way as people from Yilan regard Guishan Island—when natives who have moved away see that beautiful ridgeline from afar, they know that they have arrived home. The mountain is like a mother to the people of Longtan.

Finally Tsai brings us to the Hsinchu Bus Com­pany’s Longtan bus station, located on Beilong Road. No rail lines serve Longtan, so people depend on buses for mass transit. When Chung Chao-cheng wanted to travel outside Longtan, he would first take a bus to the train station in Chungli and then transfer to the railway to get to his destination. We can imagine how, when fellow writers like journalist Wu Chuo-liu (1900–1976) came to visit Chung, they would arrive at the bus station, from where Chung would take them to eat beef noodle soup, and then they would repair to his living quarters to chat about developments in the world of literature.

Longtan was as important to Chung Chao-cheng as Chung was to Taiwanese literature. In the permanent exhibition, these words written by the curators make a fitting footnote for our visit: “Because of Chung Chao-cheng, Longtan became an ineradicable literary setting in the history of Taiwanese literature.”

Chung Chao-cheng’s hometown of Longtan, to which he remained attached all his life, was an important source of inspiration for his writing. (courtesy of Tsai Chi Min)

Beside Longtan Lake there is an inscription of Chung’s poem “Longtan, My Hometown” in his own calligraphy. Mt. Rugu, visible in the distance on the right, is like a mother to people from this town.