"The problem lay in the difficulty of getting information and materials and not being able to do field research," Yao said May 31, while attending the launch of a series of reprinted historical novels that he wrote in jail.
Yao was sentenced by a military court under the Kuomintang government for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident--a state crackdown on an anti-government parade organized by the pro-democracy Formosa Magazine Dec. 10, 1979. Alongside seven others, including former Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien, Yao, the magazine's publisher at the time, was sentenced to 12 years, though he was released before his sentence ended.
Yao's seven volumes span 1,600 years of Holo Taiwanese history. Each book bears the name of a color as the title and focuses on a specific historical event. "White" deals with the southward emigration of the Holo Chinese from the northern Central Plains after the Battle of Fei River in 383--a war said to have secured the Chinese people from barbarian invasion. "Black" is a love story set in the 1680s when the Holo moved across the Taiwan Strait to escape the clutches of the Ching dynasty (1644-1912). "Red" is based on a 1786 uprising of the Taiwanese people against the Ching rulers. "Yellow" derives its name from the "yellow tiger stamp," being the state seal of the short-lived Republic of Formosa in 1895.
Continuing the journey through history is "Blue," a family story set against the backdrop of World War II and its aftermath in Taiwan, a former Japanese colony. "Green," based in the U.S. city of San Francisco, covers the career of a lawyer intertwined with events that took place between 1958 and 1971. The story of the last volume, "Violet," focuses on business activities of Holo Chinese descents in Taipei, Quanzhou on the mainland, Manila in the Philippines and Brunei.
The Taipei-based Grass Roots Publishing Co. decided to reprint the books, first published in 1987, this May, saying they represented collective memories of the people in Taiwan. The tomes also revealed "Taiwan as the terminal destination of the emigration of the Holo Chinese, the converging point of the world's celestial and oceanic powers, and thus endowed with a colorful history."
Yao's wife, Chou Ching-yu, a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator, also played an important role in the volumes' completion by locating material and sending it to her husband in jail. Chou revealed that the hardest part of all was sneaking out Yao's manuscripts, which was only made possible by one of the prisoners smuggling them out in laundry baskets.
At the book launch, Yao mentioned that he had been to most places he had written about before being jailed, except Anhui Province in China, where "White" is based. During his incarceration, however, luck came to his side when he learned one of his cellmates, a former soldier, had been brought up in Anhui. The inmate read Yao's manuscripts and provided him with details to embellish his story.
It was a harsh existence though, and by concentrating on writing in a stifling cell, the writer sacrificed aspects of his health. "I swapped my life for my work," Yao said, describing how he was so absorbed in his stories that he often ended up confusing the reality of a prisoner's life with those of his characters. In addition, it upset him not knowing how the readers, if any, would receive these stories.
For Yen Hsiao-shih, a lecturer with the department of Taiwanese literature at Providence University, the greatest achievement of the collection becomes clear when the readers compare the physical and mental confinement of Yao with the broad scope, in terms of time, space and insight, of the books.
Initially would-be publishers thought about asking Yao to rewrite some sections, the writer recalled, admitting that the stories contained more history than fiction and that some characters were flat. It was Huang Chun-ming, a renowned novelist, who spoke up at the time. "They are Yao's writings and important documents. We should therefore respect their originality," Yao cited Huang as saying.
In 2007, Yao's original manuscripts were donated to the Tainan-based National Museum of Taiwan Literature.
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw