Notes on Chang Ta-Chun's Wild Kids
Chang Ta-Chun is probably something like the Taiwanese equivalent of a young Bret Easton Ellis (exploring the dark side of human nature), but with a wider range. Or maybe a better comparison would be to filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang - both explore the lives of young people coming of age in today's Taiwan - the alienation, fracturing of family (divorce) which seems to be on the rise, sexuality, and street life.
Wild Kids is translated by Michael Berry and is a compilation of two short novels by the author, "My Kid Sister" and "Wild Child". "My Kid Sister" is told from the perspective of an older brother who tells the story of his own growing up and his observation of his sister's coming of age. When the story begins, brother and syster are in a women's clinic getting the little sister an abortion. The rest of the story is told in flashback, reflecting on the parents of the brother and sister, the sister's growing up and various shifts in identity/politics and the brother's affection for his kid sister. The father in the story is a total monster, convincing the children's mother through amateur imposed psychotherapy sessions over many many years that she has a mental illness which ultimately fulfills itself.
"Wild Child" is about a teen named Big Head Spring who runs away from home the day that he learns that his father has left his mother for another woman. He finds himself on the streets of Taipei and takes up with a gang (what I've heard translated poetically as "bamboo unions"). He witnesses a murder, hangs out with a prostitute and falls in love with a street waif who lives in a junkyard and teaches him how to operate a giant crane that smashes cars into tiny cubes of matter. From the other gang members, he learns how to strip cars. The story ends on an ambiguous note - Big Head Spring's mom has put out a giant search for her son thru a massive campaign papering the local 7-Elevens and the gang seems to be disbanding, but the novel comes to an end before Big Head Spring's situation is resolved.
Wild Kids is translated by Michael Berry and is a compilation of two short novels by the author, "My Kid Sister" and "Wild Child". "My Kid Sister" is told from the perspective of an older brother who tells the story of his own growing up and his observation of his sister's coming of age. When the story begins, brother and syster are in a women's clinic getting the little sister an abortion. The rest of the story is told in flashback, reflecting on the parents of the brother and sister, the sister's growing up and various shifts in identity/politics and the brother's affection for his kid sister. The father in the story is a total monster, convincing the children's mother through amateur imposed psychotherapy sessions over many many years that she has a mental illness which ultimately fulfills itself.
"Wild Child" is about a teen named Big Head Spring who runs away from home the day that he learns that his father has left his mother for another woman. He finds himself on the streets of Taipei and takes up with a gang (what I've heard translated poetically as "bamboo unions"). He witnesses a murder, hangs out with a prostitute and falls in love with a street waif who lives in a junkyard and teaches him how to operate a giant crane that smashes cars into tiny cubes of matter. From the other gang members, he learns how to strip cars. The story ends on an ambiguous note - Big Head Spring's mom has put out a giant search for her son thru a massive campaign papering the local 7-Elevens and the gang seems to be disbanding, but the novel comes to an end before Big Head Spring's situation is resolved.
posted by Shin Yu Pai at 3:13 PM
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