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A Zealous Mind beneath an Indifferent Appearance / Resistant as Wild Grass among Strong Winds: Lung Ying-tsung's Literary Life

A Zealous Mind beneath an Indifferent Appearance / Resistant as Wild Grass among Strong Winds: Lung Ying-tsung's Literary Life

Lung Ying-tsung was a male writer with a given name of Liu Jung-tsung. He used pennames such as Beardless Old Man of Taipei, Tu Nan-yuan, Peng Chih-yuan, and Liu Chun-tao. Born in Beipu, Hsinchu on August 25, 1911 (44th year of Meiji), Lung was a weak child when he was little. He staggered from time to time, and suffered from asthma. On September 26, 1999, Lung died, having enjoyed an 89-year life. Lung graduated from the Department of Commerce, Taiwan Trade and Industry School, during the Japanese Rule. He worked for the Taipei Headquarter, Nantou Branch, and Hualien Branch of the Bank of Taiwan.


After leaving BoT in 1942, Lung became an editor for Taiwan Daily Newspaper, National News, Children’s News, and Taiwan New Reports: Every Ten Days, a magazine under Taiwan New Newspaper; an editor-in-chief for the arts and literary section in Japanese and the head of the Japanese team for China Daily News; an officer in the Department of Civil Affairs, Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office; and later a deputy officer in the Indigenous Administration Guidance Room, Civil Affairs Office. Lung at this time edited Shanguang Ten-day Journal alone.


In 1949, due to personal finances, he transferred to Taiwan Cooperative Bank to be a clerk there. During this time, he and colleague Chang Wo-chun edited articles for the bank’s internal publication, Cooperative Journal, and was an editor for Baseball Community, a magazine. In 1976, he retired as a senior executive officer of Taiwan Cooperative Bank. Most of Lung Ying-tsung’s works are novels. He divided his own works into two types, autobiographical and fictional. The former includes “Broken Clouds” and “Night Flow,” with the writer appearing in the stories as Tu Nan-yuan. The latter includes “Tu Fu in Chang’an,” “Woman on Fire,” and “Dark Moon, Rising Winds.” He also wrote reviews, modern poems, theatrical scrips, and essays.


In 1937, for “A Small Town Planted with Papaya Trees,” a novel, the writer received the Excellence Prize of the 9th Reformation Novel Awards. This allowed him to ascend to Japan’s literary central stage and became acquainted with renowned Japanese writers such as Kikuchi Kan, Kume Masao, and Abe Tomoji. In 1940, he joined the Taiwan Writers and Artists Association and served as an editing committee member of Arts and Cultural Taiwan, a magazine published by the association. In 1942, he and Chang Wen-huan, Nishikawa Mitsuru, and Hamada Hayao were selected to be Taiwan’s representatives of the 1st Great East Asia Literary Forum. Since retirement, he picked up his writing pen again, first completing mid-length novels in Japanese such as “Ladies of Mazu Temple” and “Night Flow,” and full-length novel Vicissitudes. Starting in 1980, Lung focused on writing in Chinese and translated some of his previous works.