Pair Scribe Blog

Taipei and Kyoto

CHU T’ien-hsin, “The Old Capital”Lingchei Chen’s article mentions that Chu’s novella quotes it’s namesake by Kawabata nine times throughout the text.  While Chu’s work has its own similarities and differences from Kawabata, it stands to reason that her choice to...

2/19 Taipei and Kyoto

CHU T’ien-hsin, “The Old Capital” p.135 the bridge at Shijo where he had first met “Chieko’s Naeko” or “Naeko’s Chieko” lovers who seemed to never leave You told your daughter that southern China was just like that. When had you ever been in southern China? The main...

2/21 Military Family Villages

p.146 Loyalty New Village Nation the war against Japanour capital, Nanking [Nanjing] - "Painted Capital" of Six Dynasties fameEast Benevolence VillageVerdancy Chuthe Civil War broke outmah-jongthe thirty-seventh year of the Republic [1948]started to flee...

A City of Memory and Forgetting

CHU T'ien-hsin, "The Old Capital" From our teenage years, we get exposure to a variety of music, and now more than ever do we have access to sounds which transcend our starting culture. Likewise in "The Old Capital", our protagonist at seventeen, it was common of her...

2/19 Taipei and Kyoto

p.135 the bridge at Shijo where he had first met "Chieko's Naeko" or "Naeko's Chieko"lovers who seemed to never leaveYou told your daughter that southern China was just like that. When had you ever been in southern China?p.138 lonelyAdaughterp.141 Maruyama...

2/14 A City of Memory and Forgetting

p.111-112you, my dearmemoriesa belief or a loved one vs. party affiliationtropical rain forests vs. commercial real estatebackground musicgayseventeen-year-oldsp.127-134nativesa DutchmanMaruyama, or Yuanshan--Rounded HillJapanese Shinto shrines vs....

2/12 Classrooms

Hoklo and Tangshan renJapaneseHakka and yuanxiang ren (Old Country people)old-style village educationJapanese school, Shina, Shina jinFather, brother1937 Sino-Japanese Warcolonialism, the fatherland, revolution wild Chinese olive treeanger and feardoctors,...

2/7 Formosa

the enemy sidethe muggy droning of cicadasa bed of wind, your bed of cool windheryoueach pearl is a battle bullet holesZeelandiaan archipelago of spicesIhla Formosacolonize vs. surrendered Imy blood, urine, and excrementcowhide - land, the spirit of omnipresent God,...