Long Yingtai

(a.k.a.Lung Ying-tai/S.Ying Tai Walther)

b. 1952, Tainan, Taiwan

Writer

Long Yingtai became the founding director of the Taipei Cultural Affairs Bureau in late 1999. A famous Taiwan writer, literary and social critic, she sometimes writes under the pen name of Hu Meili. She earned her PhD in English from Kansas State University and had lived in the USA and Europe for twenty years before serving the Taipei municipality. She has taught at various universities abroad and in Taiwan. ‘Chinese, Why Aren’t You Angry?’ and many essays collected in Wildfire (Yehuoji, 1985) sharply criticized deeprooted malpractices in society and had a great influence on Taiwan.

Her work became known on the mainland in the 1990s. She has estimated that before 1995, she spent 20 per cent of her writing time for European readers and 80 per cent for Taiwan readers. Since 1995, however, she has been devoting 20 per cent of her writing to European readers, 40 per cent to Taiwanese and 40 per cent to mainlanders. Her long experience abroad made her think that nothing could surprise her, until, that is, she met ‘lovely’ Shanghai men, who cook and clean the floor and even wash their wives’ underwear. Her humour in ‘Ah, Shanghai Men’ led to a warm welcome in Shanghai in 2001. She believes that intellectuals play different roles under democratic and authoritarian regimes, finding it ironic that intellectuals in the latter cannot function well, yet devote themselves to changing society. Her articles about Beijingers and Singaporeans aroused many arguments.

HELEN XIAOYAN WU