Orphan of Asia by Wu Zhuoliu

Orphan of Asia Reviews

• 
  Will

  For a variety of reasons, fiction from colonial Taiwan (1895–1945) is not well known beyond scholars of Taiwanese literature, colonialism, or Japanese empire. Orphan of Asia is not a good book so much for its plot, but for Wu Zhuoliu's exploration of the psyche of a colonized Taiwanese man. There are many, often competing implications to be drawn about colonialism, nationality, gender, race, and a whole swath of other issues, which has led to Orphan of Asia gaining recognition as one of the most important books of colonial Taiwanese literature—in my opinion, deservedly so.
• 
  Stephen Rowland

  Clunky, somewhat frustrating, but abnormally compelling novel. It has its share of issues but for those interested in the time and place, it's well worth reading.
• 
  Anna Wang

  This book chronicles a Taiwanese intellectual's life under Japanese rule and his struggle to find an identity. It provides many insights and has high historic value. However, it is not a good novel. It reads more like a journal. There is not a single memorable scene in it.
• 
  Facundo Martin

  Orphan of Asia doesn't stand out as a novel, but it still rings true as a universal cry for justice.
  
  Orphan of Asia isn't a great literary work, the way, say, Achebe's African Trilogy is. True, one of the things that set Achebe apart was his subverting use of the colonizer's language, and Wu wrote in Japanese, the language of the empire that ruled over Taiwan at the time. But we can't judge him in this respect without the original, which is sadly not available in digital format. Mentzas's English translation seems adequate at the sentence level, and I'm not sure we can blame him for the often erratic pacing of the novel. Wu tells things he should show and shows things he should tell. During the first chapters, he sometimes abandons Taiming's story of initiation to launch into a family saga, as if he were writing The Dream of the Red Chamber or The Tale of Genji. At the same time, in the last third of the book Wu forgets to include key characters, whose fates are unknown for good plot reasons, in the thoughts of the protagonist despite repeatedly dipping into his mind. The fact that Orphan of Asia sometimes reads more like a pamphlet than a novel doesn't help either.
  
  And yet there are memorable scenes, like when Taiming climbs up the Ladder to the Clouds with his grandfather in the opening pages or when he first sees Shuchun standing up on the train's seat to take her luggage from the rack:
  
  "The spring sun was warm on Hu Taiming's back as he kept count of the stepping-stones that studded the backyard path to the little hill, up which his grandfather led him by the hand. The path ran through a small woods, and nameless little birds chirped and flitted from branch to branch around them. Taiming was short of breath and had lost count of the stones, and his grandfather was nowhere to be seen. Puffing, he caught up with the old man, who was waiting quietly for him at a level spot on the slope. (...)
  The old man seemed ready for a smoke. He tied his bandanna back on, sat down on a rock, packed purple tobacco into his beloved long bamboo pipe and, after having Taiming light it for him, began, with relish, to make it hiss. The protracted hissing was familiar to Taiming. It carried him into a realm of curiously nostalgic feeling like the enticing prelude to the unraveling of a long tale."
  
  "Two tiny indentations, left by her Shanghai shoes, remained where she had stood. So charmingly small were they that he forgave her lack of consideration, and his brain retained the imprints long after the velveteen surface had lost all trace of them."
  
  Having lived in Taiwan at various times during a period of five years, I have a soft spot for the country. But even if you've never heard of the place, I think Orphan of Asia can, at times, transport you to the island's incredibly biodiverse landscapes and show you a glimpse of its hodgepodge of cultures, particularly the clash between Chinese and Japanese traditions. One minute the characters are reciting Li Bai and pondering the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and the next they're walking on tatami floors, wearing yukatas and drinking saké. Of course, Orphan of Asia is no touristic brochure: it tells harrowing tales of the Second Sino-Japanese War and colonial opression. It is, above all, the story of Taiming's identity crisis after traveling to Japan and mainland China only to be spurned by both nations and experiencing firsthand the horrors of war. And while Taiming is not as complex as Obi Okwonko from No Longer at Ease, Wu, like Achebe, portrays an array of attitudes around colonialism and shows the shortcomings of not only the colonizers but also the colonial subjects. In other words, it paints a human picture of a terrible time. Hopefully reading and taking these stories to heart can help, in a very small way, to prevent the cruelty and suffering they depict from being repeated in the future.
• 
  Rita

  A great story to get a glimpse of the Taiwanese history. The whole plot is a metaphor for the Taiwanese nation trying to find identity, told through the story of a Taiwanese boy trying to find his place in life.
  However, the language and literary quality of the book leaves much to be desired. Partially this might be attributed to the translation and editing quality (the story was originally written in Japanese; I read it in English), but partially it has to do with the quality of the writing itself. Many characters and their actions are pictured in a black or white manner, lacking the true colors of real life.
• 
  Jon Heimer

  Orphan of Asia is a seminal work, on par with works like Grapes of Wrath, Great Expectations, and the like. It is a demanding read as it challenges so many of our own thoughts on collectivism, and what it means to be part of a community. But most importantly it is a historical-fiction. The Author Wu Zhouliu lived this life. While certain elements are a heightened or brought in from other individuals lives, Orphan of Asia at its heart at its soul is a true.
  
  It is not enough to simply say it is an allegory for the people of Taiwan, because then that waters down what this story and the Zhuoliu went through.
  
  
• 
  Harry Miller

  The protagonist, Hu Taiming, is educated so cross-culturally that he ceases to belong to any one culture. Every traditional activity, even a going-away party staged for him by his own family, seems stupid and indulgent to him. Furthermore, he feels at home nowhere and is suspected by everyone: Traveling between Taiwan, Japan, and Mainland China, he is regarded everywhere as an outsider, not to be trusted. If Hu's predicament weren't so sympathetic, and the writing not so good, the book would be an unmitigated turn-off. However, it is very well done and hard to put down.
• 
  Cá Nục

  Sad, heavy, but symbolic! I had get tired because the chain tragedies of Tai Hui-ming, a Taiwanese intellectual who lived in Taiwan under Japan and Changkai Shek time. The historical background of Taiwan was a root of his tragedies. I liked the image of orphan used to describe Taiwan's condition. That make me feel pity on this country - a real country but the world has not accepted it, like a orphan. This novel also help me to understand Taiwan inwardly.
• 
  Fiona🌸

  重听罗大佑，为了理解《亚细亚的孤儿》来看小说。看之前不知道原来这本小说是用日语写就；也才突然顿悟“亚细亚”是 “Asia”译名的一种。
  小说以日占台湾的一部分史实作为背景，记录了胡太明的一生。作者原话说“是被扭曲历史下的牺牲者”，他追求精神上的寄托，离开不能满足其志向的故乡求学日本，因工作机缘巧合来到大陆，并且娶妻生女，却因为时局动荡被迫逃离大陆回到故乡。他的一生不断在追寻理想但不断接受打击，最终面对战争夺去“被迫”志愿参军的同父异母弟弟的生命这最后一根稻草时，突然发疯。小说描写台湾尴尬的处境，有人还在学习孔孟，憧憬着光耀古代，有人竭尽全力成为合格的日本公民；政治上台湾面临台湾要塞向台湾战场的转变，一心向着日本的人并不能意识到日本其实把台湾人当做战场上的消耗品……所以才有了罗大佑歌里“黄色的脸孔有红色的污泥黑色的眼珠有白色的恐惧”。但除了小说的主旨，就其文学性和写作手法，几乎没有什么可读性，也是给出三星的原因。小说中把大陆所操的语言称为“北京话”——普通话本话。
• 
  Graham Oliver

  I get that this is in part allegorical but sections were painful to read - lots of melodrama, lots of people suddenly and inexplicably convinced to change their mind by one paragraph of logical oration from the protagonist, lots of the protagonist reacting to similar situations the exact same way. The big picture of the plot was compelling, as was the connection to history, but the individual scenes were not great.
• 
  Edward

  A pleasant read but a tragic tale told mostly in third person about an idealistic individual trapped between two cultures in a world being drawn into the chaoitic vortex of WW II in Asia.
• 
  Paola

  3,5
• 
  morning Os

  This is the novel that Leo Ching analyzes in his "Becoming Japanese." If I have to pick a book that I recommend to non-academic readers who want to know about Japanese colonial rule, this is the one. He depicts many kinds of people that are way too diverse to categorize, although, the author's hatred towards those Taiwanese who curry favor with the Japanese belittled their active thinking and agency. I read this after watching the controversial 2009 NHK specials, which argued that the colonization of Taiwan was Japan's first attempt to become a modern global power. Right-wingers reacted to this documentary harshly by saying that Taiwanese loved Japanese. It is ironic that right-wingers are the ones who could understand the feeling of "humiliation" the best yet they are also the ones who completely ignore it. I hope this novel will be reprinted and read by people more widely.
• 
  Maggie

  This book built very slowly for me and I had trouble understanding the main character Hu Taiming for quite a while. By the last third I was completely empathizing with him and the situations swirling around him and I dreaded ending the book because it became clear how it would end for him. I wonder how fictional this story really is? I feel as if Hu Taiming is meant to stand as a metaphor for all of Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era.
  
  I recommend this to anyone interested in the period, Taiwan, Japan's imperialism in Asia and ww2 and colonialism more broadly!
• 
  AJ

  As others have pointed out, the book's merits are perhaps more in its historically and culturally significant depiction of identity than in its prose. It is an important document in understanding the difficult issues of national and cultural identity in Taiwan, a society that has been balancing between the competing influences of China and Japan. The English translation is of high quality throughout, making it enjoyable to read.
• 
  meeners

  my rating refers to the translation. it's serviceable and it reads well, but sometimes the english really tripped me up (especially with the poems).
  
  side note: interesting and also kind of funny (as in funny-haha) that this book would be billed as "modern chinese literature from taiwan." you could contest like almost every word in that sentence!
• 
  Jessica Zu

  I read the Chinese translation (original in Japanese) and I'm very impressed by the novel. It's dark, but real. Taiming is definitely struggling to belong to something but ultimately failed because there's no room for him.
• 
  Harrison

  a decent portrait of cultural rejection, though i thought the ending was a implausible and unsatisfying. it was also lacking in details and we never really feel that this person is a human being, not just a personification of taiwan. perhaps it was too ambitious to try to do in in 200-odd pages.
• 
  Katie Bowler

  An engaging read that relations among Tawain, China, and Japan, and approaches to education and learning. This is also a great read for writers interested in ways to control and condense time.
• 
  Joseph

  The narrative is almost movie-like. Confusing at the start but will eventually make sense
• 
  Josine van Heek

  Interesting part of history especially as it concerns Taiwan. However, difficult to read, very condensed.
• 
  Christina

  Few books I've read have been able to capture me, yet move slow and steadily.
• 
  Casey Bell

  Brave man to write this while Taiwan was under Japanese occupation.