Shi Shu-ching (施叔青), a winning author of the 12th National Award for Arts in Taiwan, shared her writings and personal views at the West Bloomfield Library in Detroit on April 15.
Shi is a representative author of modernism and feminism writing in Taiwan's contemporary scene. Her "Hong Kong Trilogy (香港三部曲)” and "Taiwan Trilogy (臺灣三部曲)” series are representative of her cross-national perspectives as well as her social and historical awareness.
Born in 1945, Shi is the sister of Shi Shu (施淑) and Shi Shu-tuan (施淑端) - the latter is better known by the penname Li Ang (李昂) - who are also notable literary critics and authors.
The Chicago forum began with a retrospective discussion on America's immigration policy for Asian immigrants. Then it moved onto the topic of English novels and scripts written by Chinese writers such as Lin Yu-tang (林語堂) and C.Y. Lee (黎錦揚) in the 1950s.
Shi also explored the literary works by Taiwanese students studying overseas, including Pai Hsien-yung (白先勇) and Yu Li-hua (於梨華) from the 1970s to the 1980s, and continued onto the immigrant literature from the 1990s to the present day to analyze characteristics of works by overseas writers and compared their situation with that of Jewish American writers.
The forum was moderated by professor Sang Tze-lan (桑梓蘭) of Michigan State University, who had previously organized a large-scale festival on women in films with the Taiwan Cultural Center in New York.
The forum was joined by professor Peggy Chiu of the University of Auckland, Chang Zheng-yi (張正義) of Taiwan's Overseas Community Affairs Council, Director Mary Wang (傅曼玲) of Michigan Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, and several principals of Chinese schools in the Michigan region.