Ma Sen (馬森), a playwright, novelist, and literary critic, passed away at the age of 92 on Dec. 3, 2023 in Canada, his wife Hsu Hsiu-ling (徐秀玲) announced on Jan. 4, 2024. Saddened by the news, Culture Minister Shih Che expressed his condolences over Ma’s death and commended the writer’s great contribution to creative writing and research in contemporary novels and theater.
Born in 1932 in China, Ma Sen, whose birth name is Ma Fu-hsing (馬福星), moved to Taiwan in 1949. After graduating from National Taiwan Normal University, Ma went to L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, a French film school, and the University of Paris in the 1960s. Later, Ma obtained his doctorate in Sociology from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Ma’s writing focused on literary theories, novels, scripts, and, sometimes, essays. Deeply influenced by existentialism, Ma cared about the lonely modern people who are helpless in the conflict between Eastern and Western cultures. His works mostly revolve around how individuals are restricted and shackled by traditional ethical values and their pain of struggle to escape the predicament. He created the one-act plays, which center on family conflict, with absurd plots to describe the ridiculousness of society, initiating a wave of absurdism in Taiwan’s literary scene and the Chinese-speaking world.
After Ma moved to Canada in his later years, he donated his diaries and manuscripts to the National Museum of Taiwan Literature, enriching Taiwan’s literary materials for research and studies. Ma Sen’s notable achievements in the field of Chinese literature have left a profound impact on the history of Taiwanese literature.