Yuan Chiung-chiung (; born 25 November 1950) is a Taiwanese writer whose family originated in

Meishan Meishan (; Sichuanese Pinyin: Mi2san1; local pronunciation: ; ), formerly known as Meizhou () or Qingzhou (), is a prefecture-level city with 2,955,219 inhabitants as of 2020 census whom 1,232,648 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of t ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, China. Yuan wrote

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, fiction,

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

, screenplays and television

scripts Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

during the Boudoir literature period for women. Boudoir literature is a form of writing that focuses on issues of women. Some of the issues that Yuan focused on are: women's role in family and the workplace, and their anxieties, romantic relationships and aspirations. Yuan was inspired by the writings of an influential Chinese writer named

Eileen Chang Eileen Chang ( zh, t=張愛玲, s=张爱玲, first=t, w=Chang1 Ai4-ling2, p=Zhāng Àilíng；September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born A ...

, who was seen as the leader of the liberation for female Taiwanese writers. Both Yuan and her predecessor Chang wrote

love stories Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the lov ...

that battled stereotypes of women.

Writings

As Yuan exposed the role of women in their families, workplace, and other aspects of life, the women in her stories typically accomplished a financial feat. Either they achieved financial independence, or she showed the financial prosperity of the flourishing middle-class. Her writings attempt to demonstrate what women can do independent from men. In contrast to Eileen Chang, who depicted the differences between social classes in China in a negative light, Yuan was raised in a middle-class family and did not show any animosity towards the economical differences in society, especially since the majority of the Taiwanese people have achieved middle-class status in post-war years. In fact, Yuan greatly enjoyed her middle-class life and often showed that appreciation through her literature. Many of Yuan's stories end on a question and the plot is left unresolved. Her more recent work often deals with young people trying to resolve their inner conflict with an external experience.

Works

* ''A Lover's Ear'' * ''Spring Water Boat'' 《春水船》 * ''A Sky of One's Own'' 《自己的天空》'' * ''Fantasy Bug'' * ''Flies'' * ''Cat'' * ''Adversity'' * ''Even-Glow'' * ''Beyond Words'' * ''The Old House That Stood for 30 Years'' * ''A Place of One's Own'' * ''The Sky's Escape'' * ''Tales of Taipei'' * ''The Mulberry Sea'' 《滄桑》(1984) * ''Empty Seat''

Sources

* Sudden Fiction International, Shapard, Robert, Thomas, James. New York, NY: 1989, pp 336. * Literary Culture in Taiwan, Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, West-Sussex, NY: 2004, pp 171–175. * Yuan Chiung-chiung and the Rage of Eileen Zhang Among Taiwan's Feminine Writers: The Eileen Zhang Phenomenon, Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang {{DEFAULTSORT:Yuan, Chiung-chiung 1950 births Living people Taiwanese women novelists People from Hsinchu Taiwanese poets Taiwanese women essayists Women dramatists and playwrights Taiwanese women poets Taiwanese women short story writers 20th-century Taiwanese short story writers 20th-century Taiwanese women writers 21st-century Taiwanese women writers