Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558610187
Publication Date: 01-01-1993
 

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Preface by Ann C. Carver
Introduction by Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang

This remarkable anthology introduces the short fiction of fourteen writers, major figures in the literary movements of three generations, who represent a range of class, ethnic, and political perspectives.

It is filled with unexpected gems such as Lin Hai-yin’s story of a woman suffering under the feudal system of Old China, and Chiang Hsiao-yun’s optimistic solutions to problems of the elderly in rapidly changing 1980s Taiwan. And in between, a dozen rich stories of aristocrats, comrades, wives, concubines, children, mothers, sexuality, female initiation, rape, and the tensions between traditional and modern life.

"This is not western feminism with an Asian accent, but a description of one's cultural reality. . . . The women protagonists survive both despite and because of their existence in a changing Taiwan."—Bloomsbury Review

"Though women writers of Taiwan may be unknown to an English-reading audience, their characters and struggle will be familiar and of unfailing interest. The stories vividly recreate and dramatize moments in women's lives, allowing the reader to stretch outside her own skin, however briefly. Bamboo Shoots After the Rain is a welcome and valuable addition to our growing knowledge about the inner lives and literary talents of Chinese women." —Amy Ling, author of Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry

"Bamboo Shoots After the Rain not only introduces non-Chinese readers to some of the best writing from a lively, changing tradition, but thoughtfully invites us to meet the women who wrote it on terms that honor their varying artistic purposes as well as their individual lives and shared (but differently experienced) contexts. Most of all, the book challenges its readers to risk self-knowledge in a way that breaks through the absurdly crude dichotomies of self/other, of sameness/difference." —Elizabeth Kamarck Minnich, author of Transforming Knowledge