Dai Huaxuan, Assistant Professor, Department of Taiwanese Literature, Aletheia University

Guo Zheng’s short story “King of the Pool Players” (1988) centers on a group of tough vocational high-school students. In the Taiwanese educational world academic advancement reigns supreme, but these youths can find neither the enthusiasm for nor sense of accomplishment in scholastics, so they kill time by hanging around pool halls. 

Popular entertainment spots in 1970s and 1980s, pool parlors had a reputation as places where teenagers gathered to brawl and raise hell. Youths who frequented the establishments were seen as bad students, and were often punished by being given demerits at school. The young men in the story have no desire to study, and are expelled from school for cutting classes and using profanity. Speaking through his characters, author Guo Zheng insinuates that the rigid educational environment stifles young people’s growth: Who is better, a Harvard PhD or an expert pool player? In a society that values academic achievement above all else, the answer is obvious. On taking their final exams, the youths draw turtles of all sizes on the test papers, their way of denouncing the educational system.

Although he didn’t learn much at school, protagonist A-Mu is a top-notch pool player. Originally a timid individual, completely without ideas of his own or a sense of self, A-Mu gradually finds value in his life on the pool table, a non-academic route to the possibility of personal growth. His pool instructors are a group of classmates who constantly tease and pick on him. But the solitary A-Mu puts up with the abuse, declining to fight back, because he hopes to win the friendship of a group of peers. Thus, he makes his first real friends. As a pool neophyte, all A-Mu can do is sit and watch others play; later on he becomes an adept, running tables, his spirits soaring, almost a different person. A-Mu regards the “bad” students – his coaches and buddies – as guides on his journey to self-discovery, enabling the once lackluster, unconfident youth to find value in his existence on pool table.

Nevertheless, in the growth process there are always greater disappointments and challenges. A-Mu loses the palms of both hands in a gang fight, without doubt the greatest setback of his life. A-Mu doesn’t quit shooting pool, but continues to hone his skills despite the handicap, ultimately playing better than before. In a tournament he defeats a nationally ranked coach, winning a reputation as a “pool wizard.” The contest is A-Mu’s rite of passage, marking his ascendance from the level of technical virtuosity to the stratum of spiritual growth. In the process of becoming, A-Mu realizes, one doesn’t really need to pay too much attention to what others think – the most important thing in life is learning how to develop one’s own talents and abilities.

Dai Huaxuan, Assistant Professor, Department of Taiwanese Literature, Aletheia University

Guo Zheng (1955- ) is the penname of Tao Desan, a writer whose formal education ended with junior high school. After dropping out of the Shih Hsin School of Journalism’s (today’s Shih Hsin University) Editing and Reporting Department, he began writing while employed in a printing shop. In 1984 his short story “A Good Day to Cut Class” appeared in the China Times “Human Realm” supplement, humorously portraying youthful rebellion, melancholy, and zaniness, at the same time satirizing the rigidness and absurdity of Taiwan’s test-oriented educational system. The story resounded with both readers and critics. 

The writer’s grandfather Tao Xisheng (a noted Chinese socioeconomic historian) awakened his grandson’s interest in literature early on.The youngster was especially enamored of the classic Water Margin ¹ and similar yarns, thus many of his protagonists are imbued withchivalric spirit. His first published short story “I’ve Been Wronged, Sir!” was a tale of knight errantry set in the Taiwan countryside. Writing as Ying Tianyu, he later published the martial-arts novels Heroes of Shaolin (1987), Mountain Stronghold (1990),and Master, a Ghost! (1997).Because he also enjoyed readingunofficial histories, he penned the historical novel The Vanishing Emperor (1994).

Guo Zheng became a fulltime writer in 1991, authoring screenplays to augment his income. In 1992 his “The Emperor’s Dice” won the 10th Annual Hong Xingfu Fiction award. A number of his screenplays have been awarded the R.O.C. Government Information Office’s “Excellence in Film Prize”: Tiger General (1981), The Freeway Is Closed (1992), The Emperor’s Dice (1992), King of the Pool Players (1993), and Last Winter (1994). He has also been honored with TV’s Golden Bell Award for “Best Adaptation” In 2002 his collaboration with director He Ping on the film The Hole Digger won France’s Douville Asian International Film Festival “Best Picture” award. He also wrote the screenplay for director Wu Yusen’s Red Cliff (2007).In recent years Guo Zheng has devoted himself to scriptwriting, but continues to write fiction. His short-story collections include A Good Day to Cut Class (1989), The Emperor’s Dice (1993), and The Final Proclamation (2003).

¹Water Margin (also translated as Outlaws of the March) is story of a band of Song-dynasty outlaws who came together in defiance of a corrupt and unjust government.