_|___|_        ___|___           +---+                   
          __|___|__        __|__         __ |___|                   
            __|__        ____|____      |__||   |                   
           |__|__|        _-___-_       |__||---|                   
           |__|__|       - |___| -          /   |                   
          _-     -_        |___|           /   \|  


Among the "redskin" writers in Taiwan, Huang Ch'un-ming has
perhaps the reddest skins.  In sharp contrasts to Lin
Huai-min, nearly all of his most memorable characters are
country folk or the small men from small areas with no
intellectual pretensions.  Their daily concern is not "Where
do we go from here?" -- the kind of existential problems
with which Lin Huai-min's characters are involved.  Rather,
what they seem to worry most about is where their next meal
will come from.  Eking out a marginal existence, they do not
have the time to measure out their lives with coffee spoons.

   A Taiwanese born in 1939, Huang Ch'un-ming has been a
rebel since his childhood.  Unable to bear the hardship
wrought on him by his step mother, he ran away from home.
He started his undergraduate education at Taipei Normal
College, only to be dismissed later because of "misconduct".
Then he transferred to Tainan Normal College, but he did not
behave himself long enough to finish the requirements.  The
diploma he finally obtained is from P'ing-tung Normal
College.  He seldom has stayed at one job for more than a
year.  Presently, he is unemployed, except for his creative
writing. 

   "A Flower in the Rainy Night" ("Yu-yeh hua") is not the
original title of this story.  The original is "Days for
Watching the Sea" ("K'an-hai-ti-jih-tzu", in Wen-hsueh
chi-k'an, No. 5, 1967).  With the permission of the author,
I have used the title of a song sung by the heroine as a
substitute.


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Chinese Stories from Taiwan: 1960 - 1970
Columbia University Press (1976), New York.

This book is available at the Central Library (Call no: PL 2653.Lau)