View source for Pai Hsien-yung

{{short description|Taiwanese writer (born 1937)}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Bai (surname)|Pai]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Pai Hsien-yung
| native_name      = 白先勇
| native_name_lang = zh
| image            = 白先勇.tif
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| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|1937|7|11}}
| birth_place      = [[Guilin]], [[Guangxi]]
| death_date       = 
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| occupation       = 
| nationality      = 
| citizenship      = 
| education        = [[National Cheng Kung University]]<br />[[National Taiwan University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[University of Iowa]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 1958–present
| genre            = 
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| notableworks     = {{ublist|''[[Taipei People]]''|''[[Crystal Boys]]''|''[[New Yorkers(short story collection)|New Yorkers]]''}}
| spouse           = 
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| children         = 
| relatives        = [[Bai Chongxi]] (father)
| awards           = [[Order of Brilliant Star]] (2015)
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}}
'''Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai''' ({{lang-zh|c=白先勇|poj=Pe̍h Sian-ióng|p=Bái Xiānyǒng|w=Pai Hsien-yung}}; born July 11, 1937) is a Taiwanese writer who has been described as a "melancholy pioneer". He was born in [[Guilin]], [[Guangxi]] at the cusp of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. Pai's father was the [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) general [[Bai Chongxi]] (Pai Chung-hsi), whom he later described as a "stern, [[Confucian]] father" with "some soft spots in his heart." Pai was diagnosed with [[tuberculosis]] at the age of seven, during which time he would have to live in a separate house from his siblings (of which he would have a total of nine). He lived with his family in [[Chongqing]], [[Shanghai]], and [[Nanjing]] before moving to the British-controlled [[Hong Kong]] in 1948 as [[Communist Party of China|CPC]] forces turned the tide of the Chinese Civil War. In 1952, Pai and his family resettled in [[Taiwan]], where the KMT had relocated the [[Republic of China]] after defeat by the Communists in 1949.

==Chronology==
Pai studied in [[La Salle College]], a Hong Kong Catholic boys' high school, until he left for Taiwan with his family. In 1956, Pai enrolled at [[National Cheng Kung University]] as a [[hydraulic engineering]] major because he wanted to participate in the [[Three Gorges Dam]] Project. The following year, he passed the entrance examination for the foreign literature department of [[National Taiwan University]] and transferred there to study [[English literature]]. In September 1958, after completing his first year of study, he published his first short story "Madame Ching" in the magazine ''Literature''. Two years later, he collaborated with several NTU classmates—e.g., [[Chen Ruoxi]], [[Wang Wen-hsing]], [[Ouyang Tzu]]—to launch ''Modern Literature'' ([[Xiandai wenxue]]), in which many of his early works were published. He was also known to frequent the [[Cafe Astoria]] in [[Taipei]].<ref>[http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=70623&CtNode=428 History of Cafe Astoria]</ref>

Pai went to the US in 1963 to study literary theory and creative writing at the [[University of Iowa]] in the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]]. That same year, Pai's mother, the parent with whom Pai had the closest relationship, died, and he attributes this to the melancholy that pervades his work. After earning his M.A. from Iowa, he became a professor of [[Chinese literature]] at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], and has resided in [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] ever since. Pai retired from UCSB in 1994. Pai's cousin is Hong Kong radio personality [[Pamela Peck]].<ref>[http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/international/20120911/34500952/ Family Relations]</ref>

==Major works==
Pai's most famous work of fiction, ''[[Taipei People]]'' ({{lang-zh|c=臺北人|poj=Tâi-pak-jîn|p=Táiběi rén}}, 1971), is a seminal work of Chinese [[modernism]] that mixes both [[literary Chinese]] and experimental modernist techniques. In terms of his choice of themes, Pai's work is also far ahead of its time. His novel, ''[[Crystal Boys]]'' ({{lang-zh|c=孽子|poj=Gia̍t-chú|p=Nièzǐ}}, 1983), tells the story of a group of homosexual youths living in 1960s Taipei, largely from the viewpoint of a gay youth who is thrown out of his father's home. The novel's comparison of the dark corners of Taipei's [[228 Memorial Park|New Park]], the characters' main cruising area, with the cloistered society of Taiwan of that period proved quite unacceptable to Taipei's then KMT-dominated establishment, though Pai has generally remained a loyal KMT supporter.

==Influence==
Among other writers in Taiwan, Pai is appreciated for sophisticated narratives that introduce controversial and groundbreaking{{Vague|reason=does this refer to gay characters?|date=September 2021}} perspectives to Chinese literature. His major works, discussed above, have been widely influential.

Further, Pai's writings while in the US in the early 1960s have greatly contributed to an understanding of the Chinese experience in postwar America. "Death in [[Chicago]]" (1964) is a semi-autobiographical account of a young Chinese man who, on the eve of his graduation from the English Literature department of the University of Chicago, discovers that his mother has died back home. "Pleasantville" (1964) explores the depressed state of a Chinese mother in the upper-class [[New York City|New York]] suburbs who feels alienated by the [[Americanization]] of her Chinese husband and daughter. Both "Death in Chicago" and "Pleasantville" subtly criticize America as a superficial and materialistic culture that can cause immigrant Chinese to feel lonely and isolated.

In recent years, Pai has gained some acclaim in Mainland Chinese literary circles. He has held various lectures at [[Beijing Normal University]], among others. In the ''Beijing University Selection of Modern Chinese Literature: 1949–1999'' published in 2002, three of Pai's works are included under the time period 1958–1978.<ref>''Zhongguo Dangdai Wenxue Zuopin Jingxuan: 1949–1999''. Beijing Daxue Chubanshe, 2002.</ref> These stories reflect the decadence of Shanghai high society in the Republican era. This subject matter constitutes only a small segment of Pai's diverse work, yet it fits particularly well with orthodox renditions of pre-1949 history taught on the Mainland.

In April 2000, a series of five books representing Pai's lifework was published by Huacheng Publishing House in Guangzhou. This series is widely available in Mainland bookstores. It includes short stories, essays, diary entries, and the novel ''Niezi''. A lengthy preface in Volume 1 was penned by Ou Yangzi, a fellow member of the group that founded the journal ''Xiandai Wenxue'' in Taiwan in the 1950s.<ref>Bai Xianyong: ''Bai Xianyong Wenji''. Huacheng Chubanshe, 2000.</ref>

Pai was born [[Muslim]], attended missionary [[Catholic]] schools and embraced [[Buddhist meditation]] practices in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Indy Staff |date=2006-09-28 |title=Peony Dreams |url=https://www.independent.com/2006/09/28/peony-dreams/ |access-date=2025-04-05 |website=The Santa Barbara Independent |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*{{in lang|zh}} [http://www.nx.xinhuanet.com/hzyc/13.htm Brief introduction to Pai Hsien-yung] at [[Xinhuanet]] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211011553/http://www.nx.xinhuanet.com/hzyc/13.htm |date=February 11, 2021 }}
*[https://lib-linux2.hkbu.edu.hk/scadb/pgcw/purl.php?&did=pgcw028 Bai Xianyong: A Portrait by Kong Kai Ming] at [[Hong Kong Baptist University Library]]

{{Pai Hsien-yung}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pai, Hsien-Yung}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:American people of Hui descent]]
[[Category:American writers of Chinese descent]]
[[Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American gay writers]]
[[Category:Hui people]]
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[[Category:Nanyang Model High School alumni]]
[[Category:National Taiwan University alumni]]
[[Category:National Cheng Kung University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Guilin]]
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[[Category:Hui Buddhists]]
[[Category:Taiwanese former Muslims]]
[[Category:Taiwanese male novelists]]
[[Category:Taiwanese people of Hui descent]]
[[Category:Taiwanese LGBTQ writers]]
[[Category:Gay Buddhists]]
[[Category:Converts to Buddhism from Sunni Islam]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star]]
[[Category:Male novelists]]
[[Category:Refugees of the Chinese Civil War]]
[[Category:Taiwanese people from Guangxi]]
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[[Category:20th-century Taiwanese short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Taiwanese writers]]
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