Writer Liao Che-lin Pens "Motianling Club," Depicting People Who Fight to the Last Moment in Her Hometown

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taiwan is known as the "Kingdom of Fruits," but behind this reputation lies the hard work of many fruit farmers. Writer and painter Liao Che-lin has delved into the local customs and human stories of her hometown, completing the book "Motianling Club." She states, "What I wrote about is a group of people who fight to the last moment in their hometown."

According to new book information provided by Ink Literary, Motianling is located in Taichung's Heping District and is known as the "hometown of Taiwanese sweet persimmons." For the author, who yearned for the bustling world, this place was once a constraint. It wasn't until she returned home to "recuperate" from physical and mental exhaustion and picked up her paintbrush again that she was able to see this most familiar yet most unfamiliar land with new eyes.

The new book information points out that Motianling is a place of old and new, with contradictions and anxieties coexisting. Should young people return or continue to move forward? Liao Che-lin explores this through a layered self-analysis of her hometown, achieving reconciliation with herself through writing.

Liao Che-lin looked back at her hometown without purpose or prejudice, discovering that "the fruits grown at home were so delicious, my stern-faced father's other skill was cooking, the foreign laborers assisting were more integrated into the hometown than I was, and even the neighbors grew coffee, fully utilizing the land's best value."

In her book, Liao Che-lin meticulously depicts this "club" that raised her: "On the mountain, it was my father's exclusive cultivated land; my mother, who guarded the foot of the mountain, was a formidable figure in the fruit market." At the same time, she portrays the diverse characters of the "club": "Some are quick at bagging, some are young people who returned home to experiment with agriculture, and some are still enthusiastic about farming even if they lose money."

Liao Che-lin holds bachelor's degrees in Philosophy and Foreign Languages from National Taiwan University and a master's degree in Philosophy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She was selected for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's "Wanderer Project" and won the National Taiwan University Literary Award. Her previous work includes "The Painter of Seeds." (Editor: Wu Su-jou) 1150415