Wild Kids: Two Novels About Growing Up

Chang Ta-chun

Paper, 272 pages, 43 cartoon drawings
ISBN: 978-0-231-12097-5
$24.50 / £17.00

September, 2000
Cloth, 272 pages, 43 cartoon drawings
ISBN: 978-0-231-12096-8
$54.00

"Wild Kids turned out to be not only the window on Taiwan I was looking for, but also a quick and enjoyable summer read. It is not without depth nor short of something to sink your teeth into." — Jonathan S. Landreth, VirtualChina.com

"It's a considerable feat to have kids spout off about existentialism and not have them sound pretentious. Or high." — Barbara Spindel, Spin

"Chang writes accessible, knowing and very funny fiction about youth and screwed-up families—some of the best of its kind. . . . My Kid Sister . . . could be America's next teen classic." — Publishers Weekly

"In two jaunty, disturbing novellas from Taiwan . . . Chang Ta-chun presents us with disaffected adolescents who roam city streets, complain about school, fantasize about gangster life, and wear Chicago Bulls T-shirts." — Maureen McLane, The New York Times Book Review

"Ghoulish, playful, totally subversive." — Emily Gordon, Newsday

"Chang is an astute observer and perceptive cultural critic...English readers will easily identify with the sentiments and circumstances portrayed by Chang and skillfully translated by Berry." — Sylvia Li-chun Lin, World Literature TodayUniversity of Colorado, Denver

"This novel will inevitably invite comparisons with the classic The Catcher in the Rye." — Philippines Today

"Churning out political thrillers, martial arts short stories, hard-boiled detective mysteries, a sci-fi, collection, and just about every other genre since 1976, Chang Ta-chun is a literary celebrity in Taiwan." — Martin Wong, Giant Robot Magazine

"On the surface, this fully engaging novel written by Chang Ta-chun, one of the most critically acclaimed and popularly successful writers in Taiwan today, is a fantastic adventure story featuring a middle-class teenage boy of divorced parents in Taipei’s underground criminal circle. The narrative delights with its many twists and turns at the textual level, consisting of ingeniously crafted plot and disarmingly pungent and witty commentaries. While the universal 'rite of passage'theme of the adolescent quest for the wisdom of life is rendered with Chang’s hallmark postmodern cynicism, the author has simultaneously registered his deep sense of disillusionment with the degenerating social and political life in post–martial law Taiwan." — Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, coeditor of Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan

"Chang Ta-chun is Taiwan’s most talented, unruly, and ultimately playful writer. Like the mischievous Monkey (who makes a mockery of Heaven) in the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, Chang has repeatedly created quite a ruckus on the contemporary literary scene. He has always been able to tap into a dynamic youthful energy while, at the same time, possessing the rare ability to offer insight into the nature of what it means to be alive. Combine these two qualities and you have Wild Kids, an addictive little literary treasure." — Mo Yan, author of The Republic of Wine and Red Sorghum

Related Subjects

• Asian Literature

Series

• Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan

About the Author

Chang Ta-chun is among Taiwan’s premier contemporary authors. His prolific and varied output has transformed him from a cult literary figure into a virtual celebrity in Taiwan, where he produces and hosts a television program on literature. He has published twenty-one books since his emergence on the literary scene almost two decades ago and has taught at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He lives in Taiwan and maintains a home in Iowa, where he spends several months of the year. Michael Berry is a doctoral candidate in modern Chinese literature at Columbia University. He is the translator of several works, including the forthcoming novel To Live by Yu Hua.

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