Faraway: A Novel (Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan)

By Lo Yi-chin

Translated by Jeremy Tiang

(2003, translated 2021)

Columbia University Press

In Faraway, Lo Yi-chin documents a complex and politically and emotionally fraught mission: his efforts to rescue his dying father from a hospital in mainland China and return him safely to Taiwan before the author’s wife gives birth to their first child. Lo, a popular and influential Taiwanese novelist, mixes elements of fiction and fact into the tale, introducing us to a flawed father figure who is nevertheless still venerated by the family he abandoned when he fled the People’s Liberation Army in the 1949 Chinese Civil War. Unable to communicate with his family on the mainland for many years, he established himself in Taiwan, bought a home, remarried, and became a father.  When China lifted the cross-strait travel ban in 1987, the elder Lo began making regular trips to the Mainland, sharing gifts, eating good meals, and basking in the unconditional filial attention offered by the son and extended family he left behind so many years ago. Unfortunately, he suffers a medical emergency while on the mainland and slips into a coma. Young Lo leaves his pregnant wife in Taiwan and rushes to his father’s bedside with his mother, arriving in a hospital trapped in time. The staff, doctors, and facilities – no doubt cutting-edge in the 1950 – are museum pieces compared to the contemporary hospitals of Taiwan. Worse, the author finds he can’t get anywhere without bribing orderlies, nurses, security guards, cleaning staff, surgeons, and bureaucrats. The author provides insight into the lonely, frightened world of his birth mother while also fleshing out the story of his father’s first family and the ritual and drama of their reunions. As the trip extends and his return becomes less certain, tensions rise between the author and his wife. Underwhelmed by his father’s parenting and at a loss to explain the loyalty of the family Old Lo left on the mainland, he wonders if he isn’t already failing as a father. Though frequently exasperated, Lo discovers enviable qualities among the mainland Chinese, and near the end of the novel, a side quest to villages of the indigenous people of Taiwan, he reminds us that his nation has scars and divisions of its own. Lo also uses the tale to reflect on the nature of narrative, wondering aloud at the potential of using the receipts of a day’s travel to tell his story and musing at the difference between writing about a character and writing when he is a character who is both writing a scene and performing in it. He cites The Journey to the West and Kenzaburō Ōe’s Theories of the Novel and travels with a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude and a collection of poetry by Borges; in his mother’s suitcase, The Diamond Sutra and The Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.  Who is better prepared for this journey?  

“Dear Miss Shih, 

How are you? I’m Lo Yi-Chin, the person currently stuck in Jiujiang on the mainland because my father had a stroke. Thank you for your warm offer of assistance, which came just as I was at my most helpless. There are a few things I need to bring you up to date on: 

First, today I had a discussion with Dr. Wan, the head of the neurological department here (Jiujiang First People’s Hospital). He said that my father’s condition is good, and as long as we have enough days to satisfy the requirement for an international flight, we can request that you start making arrangements to bring him back to Taiwan. (Of course, the medical team at your end will need to contact the hospital to sort out the details.) 

Second, I want to remind you that my father weighs 95 kilos, and he’s about 175 cm. Basically, he’s fat, and you’ll need to make sure to have an extra-large neck brace and so forth. I hope the medical personnel you send over will be able to cope with this tonnage. 

Third, the hospital removed my dad’s oxygen tank today. Fourth, regarding the airline tickets for the return trip (how many people will you be sending?), here are copies of my and my mother’s (Chang Pao-Chu) tickets, in case that’s useful. The fax machines here seem pretty old. Thank you very, very much for your help! Our only wish right now is to bring my father safely back to Taiwan as quickly as possible. 

Respectfully yours,

 Lo Yi-Chin”