Lin Zhaoli, PhD candidate, Department of Taiwanese Literature, National Cheng Kung University

“Next-door In-laws” won the Fifth Annual United Daily News Fiction Award in 1979, and appeared Selected Short Fiction of 1980. The story was later turned into a long-running TV serial, “In-laws Don’t Bicker,” and an eponymous musical, starring a number of Taiwan’s most celebrated performers. Written by Yang Zhongheng and directed by Zeng Huicheng, the widely acclaimed stage show premiered in 2009 and was performed island-wide.  

The ingeniously structured story begins with the sale of a water buffalo. As Uncle Stone Dragon is selling a water buffalo, he constantly recalls bygone days; thus the story shuttles between past and present, recounting Uncle Stone Dragon’s relationship with Thick-skinned Xiong-a, and how that relationship changed over time: Uncle Stone Dragon and Xiong-a grew up together and were fast friends but eventually had a falling out and have remained estranged. The story also follows interwoven love and hates of the men’s six children – Uncle Stone Dragon’s three sons – Tiansi, Tianbao, and Tianyang – and Thick-skinned Xiong-a’s three daughters – Zhaozhi, Yingzhi, and Lianzhi.

Uncle Stone Dragon is selling the cow to raise money for his son’s school tuition; meanwhile, Thick-skinned Xiong-a is erecting a new multistory house. Moving between the past and the present, and set in a traditional farming village undergoing modernization, the story contrasts the two men’s changing fortunes.

In transitioning from tradition to modernity conflicts and turmoil are almost inevitable, a major theme of modern literature. One passage in the story clearly expresses Uncle Stone Dragon’s difficulty in adapting to his changing world: “Uncle Stone Dragon would never have dreamed that he, father to three sons and owner of over a hectare of rice paddy, when all was said and done, was not as well off as Thick-skinned Xiong-a, a man with three daughters and a only small parcel of dry farmland. When he compared himself to his former friend, Uncle Stone Dragon came up short on all accounts – even his son, Tianyang, a university student, had been spurned by Lianzhi, Thick-skinned Xiong-a’s daughter.” In traditional farming communities land, sons, and scholastic achievement were highly prized, but in modern commercial and industrial society those things seemed to have lost their worth overnight.

However, the writer both sympathizes with and satirizes his characters. In the story’s final scene Uncle Stone Dragon’s son Tianbao summons a Taipei call girl he knows to be Thick-skinned Xiong-a’s daughter Yingzhi. When Xiong-a’s wife indignantly confronts Uncle Stone Dragon about the matter, he ignores moral and neighborly considerations, replying coldly, “He paid for it.” Moreover, Uncle Stone Dragon gleefully regards this as a victory. Strictly speaking, in modern utilitarian society “goods delivered, bill paid” is a given, but Uncle Stone Dragon wishes to capitalize on the matter simply to shame Thick-skinned Xiong-a, a means of temporarily assuaging his own jealousy and frustration.

In recounting how “in-laws” can become “enemies,” the writer exposes common human frailties and the darker side of human nature (jealousy, materialism, comparing oneself to others, etc.), inviting readers to ponder the story’s regrettable developments and ask themselves: In the end, just what has been gained? And what has been lost? When viewed from this perspective the TV series’ title “In-laws Don’t Bicker” takes on a new and ironic significance.

Lin Zhaoli, PhD candidate, Department of Taiwanese Literature, National Cheng Kung University

Liao Lei-fu (1951–2008) was born Liao Fengde in De'an Village, in Yilan County’s Tungshan township. He studied history at Tamkang University and obtained a Master’s in Journalism at National Chengchi University, where he later became the first person to gain a Ph.D. in history at that university. Liao taught journalism at Shih Hsin University. After obtaining his doctorate, he also taught history part-time at National Chengchi University. Liao began writing fiction during his college days. Two short stories – “Bamboo Blossom” (1979) and “Next-door In-laws” (1980) – won the United Daily News Prize for fiction. These would later be collected in Next-door In-laws (1991), which garnered much attention in literary circles.

In addition to his teaching duties, Liao Lei-fu also worked as a journalist for the China Daily News and was a contributing editor at Storm magazine. In 1989 he was temporarily appointed to the Kuomintang (KMT) Cultural Work Committee. Following this first foray into politics, Liao also became a member of the Legislative Yuan, KMT official, KMT Deputy Secretary-General, and director of the KMT's Organizational Development Committee. With the KMT victory in the 2008 presidential election, Liao was set to become Interior Minister, but ten days before he was slated to take office he suffered a fatal heart attack while hiking near his home. He passed away on May 10th, 2008.

Liao acknowledged two main influences on his work. One was the inspiration he took from his elementary school teacher Huang Chunming, though it was only when taking the college entrance exam that he discovered Huang was a famous writer. Huang taught him that even the lowliest and most ordinary country folk could be fitting protagonists for a novel. The other influence was the Western literary works and theories introduced in the magazine Modern Literature, which led Liao to pay particular attention to structure, symbolism, and other technical aspects of writing. According to Liao, “The difference between Huang Chunming and me is that he produced works of the highest caliber, while mine, in the construction of characters and the social symbolism, still show the seams.”

This is an important and artistically meaningful self-assessment. Liao’s works are few in number but fine in quality. His topics frequently relate to the rhythms of village life and changing times. Although Liao Lei-fu has been regarded as a nativist author in the tradition of the “nativist literature” of the 1970s, the structure of his stories, the humanity of the characters – and their darkness – set his work apart from that  of other nativists.