Chinese Name: 胡長松
Born: April 16, 1973
Birthplace: Kaohsiung City (Southern Taiwan)
Did You Know That…?
Oo Tiong-siong’s work “The Ship: Huan-Ying-Hao’s Mysterious Trip (幻影號的奇航)” was the first Taigi novel nominated for the Golden Tripod Awards (金鼎獎).
Oo Tiong-siong is one of the most prominent Taigi novelists of the younger generation. He began writing stories in high school, focusing on native literature and following in the footsteps of renowned writers like Huang Chun-ming (黃春明) and Sung Tse-lai (宋澤萊). In 1997, he debuted with the Chinese-language novel “Chaishan Boy’s Requiem (柴山少年安魂曲),” which Sung Tse-lai praised as an outstanding work of neo-native literature. Drawing from Oo’s experiences growing up in Kaohsiung’s Neiwei (內惟) and Chaishan (柴山) areas, the novel vividly depicts Chaishan’s natural and urban landscapes while portraying the struggles of the lower class and prison-like school environment in the 1970s through the repentance of a teenage protagonist.
In 2000, Oo began writing in the Taiwanese language, leading to the publication of “Gunshot (槍聲)” in 2005, which is a collection of short stories centered on the February 28 incident of 1947. He meticulously gathered reports and oral histories to depict the event as realistic as possible, particularly the circumstances faced by the people in Kaohsiung at that time. In 2013, he published “The Song of the Golden Island (金色島嶼之歌),” another Taigi short story collection that comprises nine significant pieces released between 2006 and 2012. “The Song of the Golden Island” received the Taiwan Literature Awards for Taigi Novel in 2008 and was widely acclaimed in the country.
In 2015, having spent five years writing the Taigi novel “Resurrection Man (復活的人),” Oo completed the book of nearly 300,000 words, which earned him the 38th Wu San-lien Award. This achievement deeply encouraged him to continue promoting Taigi literature. On the surface, the novel tells the story of a young Indigenous Makatao man who writes love letters to an Indigenous Siraya girl. However, it also explores the political and societal changes in Taiwan during the 1990s. Sung Tse-lai described the book as a quintessential work of Plains Indigenous literature, delving into the idea that many Taiwanese may be descendants of Plains Indigenous peoples. The novel has profound influence over Taiwanese people to rediscover and reconnect with ancestral roots.
It took Oo seven years to write another epic, “The Ship: Huan-Ying-Hao’s Mysterious Trip,” which was published in 2021. The novel once again challenges reader’s expectation on Taigi novel–this time through the waves of the Western Pacific. Comparable to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” the novel weaves a tale of mystery and adventure while exploring Taiwanese ethnic identities, cultural heritage, belief systems, and international political risks. By reflecting on the relationship between land and sea, as well as Taiwan’s place in the world, the novel serves as both a prophecy and a message from Oo to future generations.
(Photo credit: National Museum of Taiwan Literature)