When we compare the two men's writing, we can see that Wu Cho-liu's works very clearly present to us the background of an era or the existing conditions of a society; while in Li Ch'iao's works, though they likewise deal with social issues, we de not easily discern any particular social features.  What Li Ch'iao does is take the subject of his narrative and extend it to any era or any society.  It is the universal and enduring qualities of human existence that Li Ch'iao wants to grasp.  The fact remains that literature is, after all, literature;  and in Li Ch'iao's works we can both apprehend the essence of literature and discover a new force in literature that he has brought to life.

     If we view Wu Cho-liu's works as literature, we expect something higher of them.  But the history of Taiwan literature is not long.  He belongs to the group of authors who pioneered Taiwan literature, and the society suffered such profound maladies in his day that he was impatient to give expression to the varied forms and hues of the society that he experienced.  His works will doubtless preserve for later generations important documentary evidence.
What is more important is that the society he knew and described was not at all at a superficial level;  he had penetrated the deeper social complexities.  Not only did these accomplishments make up for his deficiencies, they also let him open the door to literature.

     Speaking for myself, I think all the more highly of a person who plays by the rules of literature;  much more, then, do I esteem someone like Li Ch'iao, who was able to create new rules to play by.  But I also understand that concern for society itself is a sentiment of the highest value, not to mention risking numerous dangers to express that concern in writing, and to make a gift of it for the public at large as well as for an unbroken line of successive generations.  I respect these men, and my feeling of respect also goes beyond the literary.

[First published in Shou-tu tsao-pao (The Capital Morning News), June 4, 1989.  Selected from T'ai-wan wen-hsüeh te chi-tien (The Base Point of Taiwan Literature) by the author.  Kao-hsiung:  P'ai-se Wen-hua Ch'u-pan-she, 1992, Pp. 377-380.]

     Cheng Ch'ing-wen, born in Taipei county in 1932 when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule.  He graduated from the Department of Business, National Taiwan University, and worked at Hua Nan Bank for forty years until he retired recently.  He has published more than two hundred short stories, and an English translation of selected stories, entitled Three Legged Horse and edited by Pang-yuan Chi, was published by Colombia University Press in 1999.

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