An epic spanning more than half a century of Taiwan's history, this
breathtaking historical novel traces the
fortunes of the Pengs, a family of Hakka Chinese settlers, across three
generations from the 1890s, just before
Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese war, through
World War II. Li Qiao brilliantly re-creates the dramatic world of these
pioneers -- and the colonization of Taiwan itself -- exploring their
relationships with the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan and their struggle
to establish their own ethnic and
political identities.
This edition is an abridgement for English-speaking readers and marks
the work's first appearance in the
English-speaking world. An introduction explaining the cultural and
historical background of the novel is included to help orient the reader
to this amazingly rich cultural context.