Wun HsiHsin, MA, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University

In the wake of Taiwan’s economic miracle, from the 1960s and 1970s onward, farming villages underwent a rapid transformation as much of the population migrated to cities and agricultural activity diminished, bringing about changes in both traditional agrarian culture and the rural landscape. Set against this backdrop, Yang Fumin’s “Bibi” tells the story of Grandma Shuiliang, an elderly woman who returns to her native village to announce her husband’s death. The story shows how a dying village and its people integrate tradition with modern life; the author explores the nature of the village and its inclusivity, and, moreover, highlights rural women’s unbending grassroots determination. 

Written around the time Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan, “Bibi” won first prize for “Best Short Story” in the Fifth Lin Rongsan Awards in 2009. The story was included in Yang’s Sixty Year-old Boy, a 2010 collection that painstakingly and realistically depicts phenomena and social issues ubiquitous in modern Taiwanese society: the ageing of the rural population, grandparenting (children being raised by grandparents rather than parents), importation of foreign labor, marriages to denizened spouses and children born of those unions – whom the book calls “New Taiwanese.” Though termed “social issues,” these are actually predicaments faced by characters in the stories – in a hospital, a temple, a rice paddy, a farmhouse and other settings, the writer gives readers a peek at the mysteries of human nature, reexamining romance, familial love, homeland, faith, and their significance to the individual.

Thus, “Bibi” can be seen as a miniature of the Sixty Year-old Boy collection. But where does the title come from? “Bibi” is the name of the Grandma Shuiliang’s husband’s final mistress. When Bibi – who has come to Taiwan from China – makes off with a large sum of the philandering grandfather’s money, she “pushes”  the old man into his grave (bisi), and with him goes (bi qu) Grandma Shuiliang’s retirement. When the grandfather dies, “Ghost Month”  is looming (bijin); Grandma Shuiliang rides a bicycle back to the village to announce his death, and along the way cars constantly “beep” (bi) for her to get out of the way – this kind of wordplay serves as an important metaphor throughout the story, ultimately highlighting Grandma Shuiliang’s sense of helplessness at being compelled to raise a grandson on her own. In addition to using the term in its denotative sense, the author also uses “bi” to bring Grandma Shuiliang and her grandson closer together – the boy employs a beeping GPS tracker to follow his grandmother’s progress back to the village, and when the two exchange text messages their cellphones beep in alert.

Yang Fumin’s lively language vividly portrays the diverse face of modern Taiwanese society, the raucous bustle of plot and narrative serving as counterpoint to the theme of intergenerational loneliness. Even though the boy’s father and mother never appear in story, the grandmother and grandson’s love for each other is like a warm and touching poem. Set in the countryside, “Bibi” presents readers with a multitude of social phenomena and imagery, inviting them to reflect on their own lives.

¹A play on words – the story’s Chinese title is “逼逼” (Mandarin: bibi), the mistress’s name. The meaning of the character逼 is “to push, force, or compel”; thus, Bibi, the thieving paramour, “pushes” the grandfather into his grave. Bi is also represents the “beep” of cellphones, car horns, etc.

²The seventh month of the lunar calendar, when the spirits of ancestors and “hungry ghosts” are said to revisit the world.

Wun HsiHsin, MA, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature, National Taiwan University

Yang Fumin (1987- ) hails from Danei in the Tainan area. He is a graduate of Tunghai University’s Department of Chinese Literature, and is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature. Yang began writing fiction and essays as an undergraduate; he is a recipient of the Dagao Literature Award, the Nanying Literature Award, the Yushan Literature Award, the Wu Zhuoliu Literature Award, National Taiwan Literature Camp Fiction Award, the Fifth Lin Rongsan Short-Story Award, and other literary prizes. His work was selected for the publication in Selected Fiction of 2008, Selected Fiction of 2009, Commonwealth Selected Fiction (1970-2010), Selected Essays of 2011, and Selected Essays of 2013.

Yang’s 2010 short-story collection A Sixty Year-old Boy was shortlisted in both the 35th Golden Tripod Awards and the 2011 Taipei International Book Exhibition Awards, winning critical accolades. Since that time he has penned columns for the Liberty Times, the China Times, and Ink Literary Monthly. In 2013 he published two essay collections, A Short History of a Post-martial Law Taiwanese Kid, Volumes 1 and 2, which were shortlisted for the 2014 Taipei International Book Exhibition Awards. In 2014 he published My Outdoor Writing Life in Tainan, a collection of essays and photographs that introduces readers to both the Tainan region and the author’s ideas.  

In portraying the rural Taiwan landscape and traditional Taiwanese folk customs, Yang Fumin encourages readers reflect on the modern age. Keenly attuned to subtle emotional states, Yang’s fluid prose and lively language fill his works with warmth and sincerity, a testament the power of his pen. Furthermore, he lards his richly poetic prose with Internet slang, advertising slogans, and popular cultural memes, transcending the “nativist literature” tradition that has come down from the Japanese colonial era, investing “nativism” with a new and broader meaning.