BANANA KING NGÔO TSÍN-SUĪ

Lee’s historical novel, translated from the Mandarin, Hoklo, and Japanese by Smith, recounts the true story of a man who massively expanded Taiwan’s banana trade during dark days of martial law.

Ngôo Tsín-suī is from an agricultural area in southern Taiwan. His goal is to benefit local farmers, improve product quality, and expand Taiwan’s dominance of the Japanese banana market. He has remarkable success, bolstered by his concern for the farmers’ finances and his negotiation skills. He rises to become the director of an industry group, and becomes known locally as the Banana King, but his life at his farm with his wife, Gio̍k-ìn, and their beloved water buffalo, Mari, is where his heart is. Taiwan is in a state of upheaval as World War II ends; Japanese colonizers leave, and Chinese Nationalists arrive. Tsín-suī, who speaks a native Taiwanese language, Hoklo, as well as Japanese, must now learn Mandarin. The resentful local population stages a revolt that the Chinese Nationalist government brutally puts down. Tsín-suī survives the aftermath and continues to flourish in the banana business, but his stature and reputation are threatened when corrupt officials fabricate a fraud case against him. Lee’s historical novel offers readers an impressive amount of detail about a difficult period of Taiwanese history and of a figure whose grand ambition ultimately didn’t succeed (as noted in a foreword). His characterization of Ngôo Tsín-suī as the face of Taiwanese success is highly readable as various challenges, including literal storms, swirl around him. However, readers may find that the granular level of detail sometimes bogs the story down. Lee’s depiction of Tsín-suī as an innovator who put cash in the hands of small farmers is inspiring, and his story offers life lessons as well as obvious warnings about authoritarian government. Smith’s translation uses natural, contemporary English while preserving what he can of the original languages (“He must have eaten some tshau-phang sweet potatoes. Must be that’s why his stomach is so bloated”), along with providing explanatory footnotes (in this case, defining tshau-phang as “giving off a rotting odor”).

An inspiring and informative, if tragic, tale of Taiwan.