Qiu Miaojin (; 29 May 1969 – 25 June 1995), also romanized as Chiu Miao-chin, was a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. Qiu's fictional works are "frequently cited as classics", and her unapologetically

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

sensibility has had a profound and lasting influence on

LGBT literature LGBT literature may refer to: * Lesbian literature * Gay literature * Bisexual literature * Transgender literature * Or any other literature featuring the LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Biography

Originally from

Changhua County Changhua County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''Zhānghuà Xiàn''; Wade-Giles: ''Chang¹-hua⁴ Hsien⁴''; Hokkien POJ: ''Chiang-hòa-koān'' or ''Chiong-hòa-koān'') is the smallest county on the main island of Taiwan by area, and the fourth smallest ...

in western Taiwan, Qiu Miaojin attended the prestigious

Taipei First Girls' High School Taipei First Girls High School (TFG; ; colloquially or ), is a Taiwanese all-girls senior high school, located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei City. Accepting only the top scorers in the national Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior Hig ...

and

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 ...

, where she graduated with a major in psychology. She worked as a counselor and later as a reporter at the weekly magazine ''The Journalist''. In 1994 she moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where she pursued graduate studies in

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

University of Paris VIII Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution. It is one of the th ...

, studying with philosopher

Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. She is known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a writer and thinker, her work dealing with multiple genres: theater, literary an ...

. Her death was a

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. Most accounts suggest that she stabbed herself with a kitchen knife.

Writing

Qiu Miaojin's writing is influenced by the non-narrative structures of avant-garde and

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

as well as European and Japanese literary modernisms. Her novels contain

camera angles The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diffe ...

and

ekphrasis The word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal descrip ...

in response to

European art cinema European art cinema is a branch of cinema that was popular in the latter half of the 20th century. It is based on a rejection of the tenets and techniques of classical Hollywood cinema. History European art cinema gained popularity in the 1950s do ...

, including allusions to directors such as

Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky ( rus, Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Russian filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greates ...

Theo Angelopoulos Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (; ; 27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely re ...

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

, and

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran� ...

. During her time in Paris, Qiu directed a short film titled ''Ghost Carnival''. Her works as a filmmaker are in the collection of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York. Her best-known work is ''

Notes of a Crocodile ''Notes of a Crocodile'' ( Chinese: 鱷魚手記) is a 1994 Taiwanese novel by writer Qiu Miaojin (邱妙津). It is one of the most significant Taiwanese lesbian novels of the 1990s, and is also a significant work in Taiwanese literature. The no ...

'', for which she was posthumously awarded the China Times Literature Award in 1995. The main character's nickname, Lazi, is the direct source of a key slang term for "

" in Chinese. ''Notes of a Crocodile'' was published in 1994, amid a Taiwanese media frenzy surrounding lesbians, including an incident in which a TV journalist secretly filmed patrons at a lesbian bar without their consent, resulting in some suicides, and the group suicide of two girls, rumored to have been lesbians, from the elite high school attended by several characters in the novel and by Qiu herself. Along with her final work before her death, ''Last Words from Montmartre'', the novel has been widely described as "a

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

." ''Last Words From Montmartre'' is an

epistolary novel An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...

that comprises 20 letters that can be read in any order, drawing on the notion of musical indeterminacy. Its prose appears to "blur distinctions between personal confession and lyric aphorism" according to a review in

Rain Taxi ''Rain Taxi'' is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, ''Rain Taxi'' maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts read ...

. Dated between 27 April 1995, and 17 June 1995, about a week before the author killed herself, the letters begin with the dedication: "For dead little Bunny, and Myself, soon dead." It has been described as a work of

relational art Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theor ...

and noted for the required presence of the reader, "a 'you' to narrate to" that is a signature of Qiu's works. In 2007, a two-volume set of Qiu's diaries was published posthumously.

Legacy

Qiu has been recognized as a literary national treasure and counterculture icon, as well as described as a "martyr" in the movement for

LGBT rights in Taiwan Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Taiwan are regarded as the most progressive of those in Asia. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal, and same-sex marriage was legalized on 24 May 2019, following a Constitution ...

. Her works are taught in high schools and colleges in Taiwan and have "become a literary model for many aspiring writers". Luo Yijun's book ''Forgetting Sorrow'' () was written in her memory. Moreover, Taiwanese writer Li Kotomi explicitly cites Qiu's ''Notes of a Crocodile'' as an inspiration for her 2017 novel ''Solo Dance.'' Queer Sinophone scholar Fran Martin writes: In 2017, her life and work became the subject of a documentary produced by

Radio Television Hong Kong Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...

and directed by

Evans Chan Evans Chan (陳耀成) is a Hong Kong Second Wave film director. His work usually focuses on exploring identities of Hong Kong people, such as ''To Liv(e)'' (1992), ''Crossings'' (1994), and ''The Map of Sex and Love'' (2001). ''To Liv(e)'' is th ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Notes of a Crocodile''《鱷魚手記》 (1994) - translated by Bonnie Huie (

New York Review Books Classics New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, N ...

, 2017) * ''Last Words from Montmartre'' 《蒙馬特遺書》 (1996) - translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich (

, 2014) * ''Letters from Montmartre'' (1996) - excerpt translated by

Howard Goldblatt Howard Goldblatt (, born 1939) is a literary translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese (mainland China & Taiwan) fiction, including '' The Taste of Apples'' by Huang Chunming and '' The Execution of Mayor Yin'' by Chen Ruoxi. Goldblatt ...

Short stories

* "Platonic Hair" (1990) - translated by Fran Martinin F. Martin (Ed. & Trans.), ''Angelwings: Contemporary Queer Fiction from Taiwan''. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003.

References

External links

Excerpt from ''Last Words from Montmartre''
in

Words Without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

Excerpt from ''Last Words from Montmartre''
in Lonely Girl Phenomenology (magazine)
Excerpt from ''Last Words from Montmartre''
in

Guernica (magazine) ''Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics'' is an online magazine that publishes art, photography, fiction, and poetry from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces, and opinion pieces on internat ...

Podcast reading and interview with the translator of ''Last Words from Montmartre''

"The Kids Are Too Straight: Translating Qiu Miaojin's ''Notes of a Crocodile''"
in Kyoto Journal
First excerpt from ''Notes of a Crocodile''
in

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

Second excerpt from ''Notes of a Crocodile''
in ''The Margins'', published by

Asian American Writers' Workshop The Asian American Writers' Workshop (often abbreviated AAWW) is a nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 1991 to support Asian American writers, literature and community. Cofounders Curtis Chin, Christina Chiu, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and B ...

Third excerpt from ''Notes of a Crocodile''
in

"In Praise of the Fuck-Up: On Translating Qiu Miaojin"
at PEN.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Qiu Miaojin 1969 births 1995 suicides Lesbian writers Taiwanese LGBT writers LGBT culture in Taiwan Postmodern writers Taiwanese diarists Taiwanese memoirists National Taiwan University alumni University of Paris alumni People from Changhua County Suicides in France Taiwanese women novelists Taiwanese novelists Taiwanese expatriates in France Women memoirists 20th-century women writers 20th-century novelists 20th-century Taiwanese writers 20th-century memoirists 20th-century diarists 20th-century Taiwanese LGBT people