Open Collections

Wat Memorial Lecture : Pai Hsien-yung

Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the UBC Department of Asian Studies. Father and the Republic is a photobiography devoted to the life and career of the late General Pai Ch’ung-hsi (Bai Chongxi; 1893–1966). Father and the Republic includes nearly six hundred photographs (many appearing in public for the first time) that serve to illustrate the public career and family life of General Pai from the 1920s to his days in Taiwan. As a witness to the birth of the first republic in Asia, Pai Ch’ung-hsi felt an unwavering sense of loyalty to it and chose to stay on in the Republic’s last foothold in China. General Pai was also a devout Muslim, and his death in 1966 was honored with a state funeral held in accordance with Muslim customs. Son of the prominent military general Pai Ch’ung-hsi (Bai Chongxi), Pai Hsien-yung grew up in Guilin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong during the war years of the 1930s and 1940s. His family eventually resettled in Taiwan, where he received the remainder of his early schooling. Pai Hsien-yung is a graduate of the National Taiwan University (1961), where he co-founded the literary journal Xian dai wen xue (Modern Literature). Pai Hsien-yung is recognized as one of the most important modern Chinese fiction writers. His works, comprising several dozen volumes, include short story collections, novels, screenplays, and critical essays; among his more notable works are Taibei ren (Taipei People), Nie zi (Crystal Boys), Niuyue ke (New Yorkers), and the stage play You yuan jing meng (Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream). His most recent endeavor has been the completion of a photobiography of his father, Fu qin yu Min guo (Father and the Republic), which was published simultaneously in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China in 2012. The publication of the book was a major milestone, which the noted historian Diana Lary has called “a harbinger that a serious reconsideration of China’s history of revolution can be discussed in public… [and that] a clearer understanding of modern Chinese history [can be achieved].”

Hong Kong (China); Shanghai (China); Taiwan

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0076746

Arts, Faculty of; Asian Studies, Department of

Other

DSpace