Most people believe that people with big heads are smart, and Big Head Chun's brain is indeed packed with contemplations and opinions. Taking the form of weekly reports, which have been commonly assigned at Taiwan's elementary and junior high schools for years, the work was first published in serial form in a newspaper. A year later it came out as a book with 30,000 copies coming off the presses in a few months. Well received by teenagers, it has also attracted the attention of many middle-aged readers because both the book's written form and the rebellion, doubts and perplexities conveyed in it bring back collective memories.

The 46 weekly reports span the period from June 1991 to June 1992. Facing great changes in his family life, an emerging consciousness of his sexuality and a society in transformation, this eighth-grader uses "The Major Events of the Week" heading to track his parents' marriage and news of his classmates and teachers, "Important News" to describe news about international and domestic politics and society and "Lessons Learned" to convey his feelings. In this latter column, the writer delves deeper, frequently using vivid teenage language to sneer at all that is ridiculous and peculiar in Taiwanese society.

Under the heading "Criticisms of the Class Leader" he uses a teacher's voice to poke fun at monotonous teaching methods. Take, for instance, page 41: "Uncouth matters cannot be written about in weekly reports. Police officers' work is strenuous and their pressures are great; thus we shouldn't unduly criticize them. The line 'the melancholy of the autumn wind and rain,' written by the revolutionary martyr Chiou Chin as she neared death, can be quoted in only the most solemn of circumstances." Finally in "Correcting Mistakes," he writes correctly ten times the characters he has written improperly.

This method of separate headings sounds very simple. While the 46 entries have a kind of continuity taken together, each individual entry can also stand by itself. The ample greed, anger and comings and goings of modern people are clearly traced. Intelligent readers will not be led astray.

Though Big Head Chun is actually a child laden with anxiety, he does the kind of things that any typical 15-year-old enjoys doing. He is forced to watch the split between his parents grow wider by the day until they actually separate. His eyes see a warm universe break apart.

Before his parents sign their divorce agreement, "They pretended as if they were being real democratic and open and all, inviting me to talk about it with them in the living room. . . . Because I still had homework to do and really didn't have any time, I said 'What the hell does it have to do with me?' and left. That night I couldn't get to sleep even though I wasn't very sad." (Page 88) "One day I was straightening up my room and I came across some old photos. It made me a little sad that happy feelings can't be kept forever like snapshots. Now I would rather be a photograph myself." (Page 105) These are the only descriptions of his sadness.

The writer uses his understanding of the new generation to show how Big Head Chun masks the palpitations of his heart in cool packaging that projects an attitude of calm indifference. Yet his motive for writing this book was precisely to convey that these youngsters feel just at much pain in letting go to those close to them as their elders. The desire for a stable and loving home never changes.

Of course, besides this central thread running through the book, through the eyes of Big Head Chun we see a varied and colorful world, impoverished lifestyles in a rich and unjust society, conflict between the sexes and the mentality that pushes one to seek comfort through religion.

At appropriate times, Chang Ta-chun displays again and again brilliant plays on words, such as when the class leader corrects mistaken use of idioms. The final report's "Lesson Learned" column says that he has read two books which instruct people to help animals suffering from illness. "It's too bad that the medical books in our lives are so many whereas the animals are so few." He is no casual reader.

Not long after this book was published, Chang Ta-chun also published The Secret Book of Escape, which contains four poems: "Youth in a Windless Zone," "Certain to Forget," "Single Parent Fashion" and "Night Walking Youth." These poems can be said to outline Weekly Report of Young Big Head Chun. The poems have already been recorded as rap numbers, giving even greater color and variety to the book's messages.

In reading this journal, one can't help but be bothered by the cool indifference adopted by this fifteen-year-old. Many years ago youth were influenced by Hsia Mien-tsun's translation of An Education in Love, in which an Italian youth writes of the love of his country, family and friends. It had a deep impact on molding people's character. Today Big Head Chun probably can't believe in that kind of pure love and trust.

Perhaps because they aren't burdened with anxieties about the nation, writer Chang Ta-chun and this generation of youth can coolly observe the mess of human life, the broken families and the modern realities about which nothing can be done-- and then go on to topple the old and lay out and mold the new. After laughing and crying, the new generation can try to find a new balance and order to the world.

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Author: Chang Ta-chun

Publisher: Unitas

Price: NT$120

Pages: 174