Chung Chao-cheng

Chung Chao-cheng (Chinese: 鍾肇政; Hakka Chinese Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chûng Sau-chṳn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Cheng Tiāu-chèng 20 January 1925 – 16 May 2020) was a Taiwanese Hakka writer.

Chung was born on 20 January 1925,[1] in Longtan District, Taoyuan.[2][3] Under Japanese rule, the subdivision was classified as a village by the name of Ryūtan, itself a part of Daikei, in Shinchiku Prefecture. His father was a schoolteacher and principal.[2] Chung was sixth of ten siblings, and the only son.[3] He enrolled successively at the Tamkang Middle School and then the Changhua Normal School, and later studied at National Taiwan University, but did not complete a degree in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, due to a bout of malaria.[2] He learned to speak Taiwanese Hokkien at an early age, and was educated in the Japanese language.[4] Chung taught at Longtan Elementary School until 1979,[1][5] switching from Hakka to teaching in Mandarin at the request of the Kuomintang-led government.[4] His knowledge of languages made Chung a member of the translingual generation.[4] His first work was published in 1951, within the pages of the magazine Rambler.[6] His first novel appeared as a serial within United Daily News,[6] and over the course of his career, Chung published over thirty novels.[2] His literary output also includes many essays, over 150 short stories, and more than forty works translated from Japanese.[7] Together with his contemporary Yeh Shih-tao, the pair is known as "North Chung South Yeh."[3] He promoted Taiwan nativist literature. Known as the doyen of Taiwanese literature,[8] Chung's novel The Dull Ice Flower was adapted into a Golden Horse-winning film released in 1989. He was a recipient of both the Wu San-lien Literary Award and the National Literary Award, among others.[1][5] Chung fell the week before his death, and subsequently lapsed in and out of consciousness.[1] He died on 16 May 2020 at home in Taoyuan.[9][10]

Chung received the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon in 2000 from the Lee Teng-hui presidential administration. Lee's successor Chen Shui-bian awarded Chung the Order of Propitious Clouds with Grand Cordon in 2004. Posthumously, the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon was conferred upon Chung, alongside a presidential citation from Tsai Ing-wen.[11][12]