Abstract
This study begins with Chang Hsiu-ya’s life and thought, followed by an outline of the specific Catholic spirituality of Vatican II as manifested in the suffering engendered by the tension inherent in a secular world filled with transcendent grace, before moving on to a detailed discussion of Chang’s stories oriented toward that spirituality. By examining these stories according to the structural narrative categories of social criticism, character studies, works of tragic epiphany, and stories of grace, we gain an understanding of how suffering and grace shine within and through these stories, and how they are reflected in the abiding concerns of their author. Chang was a significant presence on the literary stage of twentieth-century China and Taiwan; her work has been regretfully underrepresented in academe.
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Notes
- 1.
In a letter to Teresa Yu of 13 August 2001, Tsien (2003) notes that Chang was the last living Catholic writer in Chinese.
- 2.
All quotations from Chang’s works are taken from Chang 2005. There is anecdotal evidence of Chang’s work being translated, but I could locate no existing English translations of either her essays or her fiction; thus, all quotations from primary sources are translated by me.
- 3.
To my knowledge, there is no secondary literature in English on Chang Hsiu-ya’s fiction; therefore, all quotations of secondary sources on Chang’s life and works are translated by me. For the latest bibliography in Chinese, see Feng (2013).
- 4.
Chang’s daughter, Teresa, clarifies (pers. comm.) that Chang had no political leanings either way, and that she was already well-known in the literary sphere before the outbreak of political unrest.
- 5.
See 147 Cong. Rec. 16,234 (2001).
- 6.
For more on this periodical, see Zhang (1994, 56–59).
- 7.
The analogical “language” of Tracy’s theology refers to how “the event of Jesus Christ,” which is “the primary focal meaning,” serves as “the primary analogue for the interpretation of the whole of reality” (Tracy 1981, 408); for Catholicism , specifically the theology of Karl Rahner, Tracy points out that “reality not merely has analogies but is analogy through and through” (412; emphasis in original).
- 8.
Greeley’s stance on didacticism is clear: He observes that “a religious sensibility is passed on by storytellers” whose “narratives reside more in who they are and what they do rather than in what they say” (2000, 175).
- 9.
The reader should bear in mind that, in this essay , these terms refer to literary movements, and that any evocation of schools or criticisms of theology is unintentional.
- 10.
For a thematic categorization, see Huang (2007).
- 11.
Fan concurs (2005, 41).
- 12.
His name is given in English in the original.
- 13.
Despite the title of the story, the arrested son is not Laoxingzi, who is actually the father (Chang 2005, 11:150). This seems to be an error on Chang’s part.
- 14.
In Chinese, the equivalent relational title for “god-” is gan (lit. “dry”), which is in no way religious.
- 15.
The pinyin forms of the protagonists’ names used in the original are Laiang and Luxi; Beth is Beisi. These are conventional translations of the Western names that I have employed.
- 16.
The italicized clause is in English in the original.
- 17.
This is a Chinese character, not an initial.
- 18.
In traditional Chinese culture, marriage between maternal first cousins is allowed.
- 19.
She seems to be referring to Luke 6:37, “[F]orgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (KJV).
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Sheu, J.C. (2018). Spirituality in the Fiction of Chang Hsiu-ya: Through the Lens of Vatican II. In: So, F., Leung, B., Mylod, E. (eds) The Catholic Church in Taiwan. Christianity in Modern China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6668-9_10
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