Cheng Ch'ing-wen (; 16 September 1932 – 4 November 2017) was a Taiwanese writer and a graduate of

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

. He worked at the then government-run for forty years. His works in English are generally under the transliteration "Cheng Ch'ing-Wen" and that is how he is described in many English-language publications published in Taiwan. The transliteration "Tzeng Ching-wen" is also used. He was one of the leaders of the Taiwanese " nativist" movement. Cheng was fluent in

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 70% ...

. He graduated from elementary school in Taiwan with six years of instruction in Japanese, and only thereafter began to learn Chinese. A collection of twelve of his short stories, ''Three-Legged Horse'', was made available in English in 1998, and won the 1999

Kiriyama Prize The Kiriyama Prize was an international literary award awarded to books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia. Its goal was to encourage greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the region. Established in 1996, the prize was last awar ...

for fiction. His works included short stories, essays, and fairy tales. His three collections of fairy tales (''Swallow Heart Berries'', ''Sky Lanterns/Mother'', and ''Picking Peaches'') are populated with birds, insects, and other animals that all have the ability to speak, in a manner common to fairy tales. Cheng died at the age of 85, on November 4, 2017.

References

*"A Royal Palm: Cheng Ch'ing-wen as a Writer for Twenty Years" by Peng Jui-Chin, ''Taiwan Literature'' October 1977, pp. 176–190 *"The Lonely Royal Palm-Discovering Cheng Ch'ing-wen's stories of Taiwan" ny Hsu Su-lan, ''Taiwan Daily News'' December 31, 1997

External links

Three-Legged Horse
and
Biography and photo (in Chinese)Hua Nan Bank Website(in Chinese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Ching-Wen 1932 births 2017 deaths National Taiwan University alumni Taiwanese male novelists Taiwanese bankers Writers from Taoyuan City Taiwanese male short story writers 20th-century Taiwanese short story writers 20th-century male writers