Zhang Dachun: an amateur writer who goes his own way

An amateur writer who goes his own way

In 1989, Zhang published “Weekly journals of the teenager Big Head Chun” under the pen name “Big Head Chun,” and the book sold 260,000 copies. “It seems that this novel was my only best seller,” said Zhang 20 years later.

The contents of the novel were the statements of a teenager presented in the form of weekly journals, including weekly events, weekly life, reading reports, self-criticism reports and teachers’ comments. The text was complex and many meanings could be derived from it. It was considered profound by scholars, but funny for readers. As the novel was closely connected with reality and was “extremely critical” (according to Zhang), critics started to speculate blindly. “The relationship between the father and the son in the novel is a metaphor for the relationship between the government and the public.”

When the novel sold well, the editor came to “threaten” Zhang “If you won’t write a sequel, I’ll find someone else to write a Big Head Sister sequel.” Afraid that the novel would be ruined, Zhang casually wrote chapter headings on a menu and handed it to the editor. He then wrote the sequel in 26 days and named it “My Younger Sister.” Although Zhang did not actually have a younger sister and the sequel was not funny, readers were still willing to pay for it. “My Younger Sister” sold 160,000 copies. However the editor didn’t let him off and came to “threaten” him further, saying “We need money to buy a storehouse. Help us and write another novel.” So Zhang wrote another sequel named “Wild Child.” At the end of the book, Big Head Chun appeared “dead” so the whole thing finally ended.

Before this, Zhang had already become a famous Taiwanese writer. “I’ll openly admit it,” said Zhang to “China News Week” in a “self-evaluation.” Before 1980, just like that of other places around the world, the literary world of Taiwan had a strong mood of “following the trend,” and Zhang couldn’t avoid it. When “magical realism” was prevailing, he wrote a novel named “Tour Guide of the Mansion”, and was immediately titled “Spokesman of Taiwan’s Modernism and Avant-garde.”

Today, when talking about his titles of the same genre, he always adds “so-called” before them. After Zhang’s books were introduced to the Chinese Mainland, Zhang has the exaggerated title of “the Best Contemporary Novelist in Chinese literature” in the “About the Author” column.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s Zhang basically wrote for a living, although he was also busy with a lot of other things including television programs, documentaries and occasional lectures at universities. He always had many demands from publishers. In 1988, he worked as a chief-writer for the literary supplement of a newspaper in Taiwan. But after few months he resigned, as “third-class articles are not suitable for first-class writers.” The newspaper refused his resignation, and after one month’s vacation they offered him the original position. Then, he continued to “receive money for nothing” under the strange title of “Member of Writing Committee.”

As a result he started to read 30 newspapers every morning, selected some funny news from the newspaper, and then compiled them into stories. The stories were serialized in the newspaper every afternoon. “Half of the stories were my own experiences, but all the backgrounds were the news of the same day,” said Zhang. “I just wrote for fun.” However, this comedic novel, which covered both politics and social reality, was extremely popular among readers. After being serialized for over a year, the stories were compiled into a book named “The Big Liars,” which made fun of both the author himself and politicians.

Everybody knows Zhang is extremely brilliant. He causally wrote a science fiction named “The Sorrow Dead,” but the fiction won the Taiwan Science Fiction Award. Collection of his relatively serious articles from columns also became a work of literary theory; the “Unorthodox Novels.”

The label of “Naughty Writer” is always imposed on Zhang, just like his shadow. But Zhang doesn’t care, and still sticks to his old way of doing things. He continues to criticize reality and create imaginary stories, and has also started to look back and look after the “abandoned baby:” classic culture.

In Taiwan, writers usually come from traditional intellectual families, for example, Tien-wen Chu and Tien-Hsin Chu family. The people they socialize with are also celebrities. In comparison to them, although Zhang’s father could write, he was just a common civil servant and had nothing to do with literature. It could be said that Zhang was just an intruder in the literary world. Other writers, such as Kenneth Pai and Leo Ou-fan Lee have entered the Hall of Celebrities of Taiwan’s literature due to their double background of western culture and traditional Chinese culture; in comparison it could be said that Zhang, who loves storytelling and cross talk, majored in Chinese literature and makes a living by doing various common jobs, is quite “rustic.”