Chung Li-ho


Chung Li-ho December 15, 1915 - August 4, 1960, was a writer from Taiwan famous mainly for fiction. He was a Liudui Hakka, born in Gaoshu Township, Pingtung in 1915, who moved with his parents to a newly purchased fruit and coffee plantation in Meinong in around 1932. Eloping with a woman because their same-surname relationship was taboo in their community, he resided in Japanese-occupied China – Shenyang and Beijing – between 1938 and 1946. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 44 in Meinong whilst revising his last and possibly finest work, a novella entitled "Rain".

Legacy

There is a Chung Li-ho Museum, located in Meinong, Kaohsiung is dedicated to Chung. His life has been dramatized as China, My Native Land, a 1980 film directed by Li Hsing, featuring theme and other songs by Teresa Teng. Chung's eldest son,, was an award-winning writer of fiction and prose. The asteroid 237187 Zhonglihe, discovered by Xiangyao Hsiao and Ye Quan-Zhi at Lulin Observatory in 2008, was named in his memory. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 12 October 2011.