Chinese Author Qiu Miaojin and What Might've Been

An author, a filmmaker, a passionate artist whose life may have been her art just as much as her words, who left us too soon and too little. Qiu Miaojin (1969-1995) was a Taiwanese writer who died by her own hand at 26 (Qiu is the family name, Miaojin her given name). She only published two novels, Notes of a Crocodile (1994) and Last Words from Montmartre (1996), both written in the first person. There exists, however, a novella-length story, "The Lonely Crowd," and a short story collection, The Revelries of Ghosts, neither of which appears to have been translated into English, so we can hope for more to come.

Notes of a Crocodile is the more conventional novel. An 18 year old university student, and her circle of misfit friends, trying to move through youth, sexuality, and first love, overthinking, feeling emotions too much, too proud, too weak, all the trappings of being a teenager, all complicated by a society in which these feelings by these people, are forbidden.

Last Words, the story of the dissolution of a love affair, is powerfully written, but overwhelming, it's just too much. There's no plot, no growth, no lesson learned. And it's too close to what I wrote in my diary at 17. It's more a tour de force, proof that one can write about a breakup for the length of a book, an endless howl of pain and desire. The narrator (Zoe) states that it "won't be a great work of art, but it could be a book of true purity." I agree, perhaps great almost as a work of performance art, but more so a pure book, pure in its unwavering commitment to her feelings. I could see it a perfect read for high school, maybe even university students, whose limited experience makes them more easily swayed by emotion. At one point in Last Words the narrator imagines writing a novel called Last Words to Those I Loved Deeply. That would've been an equally good title.

The actions of Zoe, the protagonist of Last Words, suggest that she may have histrionic personality disorder. The characteristics of that condition are constant attention-seeking, emotional overreaction, and suggestibility. A person with this condition tends to over-dramatize situations, which may impair relationships and lead to depression. That the author seems to find no fault in Zoe, makes it possible that Qiu herself may have had such feelings, with overreaction and depression assisting in her suicide.

In Last Words, Zoe states, "an artist's work only really moves me if the artist has suffered through profound tragedy and death -- only then can greatness be achieved." Putting aside how we know what an artist has suffered, this quote suggests that Qiu may have felt that she had to kill herself to legitimize her art. Or was it the same longing for death because of a broken love affair that possesses Zoe.

Given the number of Japanese writers, including Haruki Murakami, Yukio Mishima, and Kobe Abe who are mentioned in both her novels, Qiu seemed to be heavily influenced by the literary connection
between love, death, violence, and suicide. Perhaps reading the works of her Japanese novelist mentors also had an effect on her view of life. And all of this was distorted by the condemnation of homosexuality in the Taiwanese culture.

Lesbianism is too essential to her first novel not to be mentioned, but in her second book that the narrator is a lesbian is almost incidental, it's simply the story of human beings in pain. As noted in her second book, "The word 'lesbian' is a term that is really only meaningful in political contexts." In the first book the context is clear, in the second it is clear and present, but no longer essential to a writer who was no longer writing simply about a niche in society, but about the feelings of all people, about love, pain, desire, and who we all are. Where Qiu Miaojin might have gone with her next book, we can't imagine, it isn't for us to know. From the scant evidence of these two books (and the urgently needed additional writings mentioned above), I can say that Qiu future works would have commanded a diverse and inclusive audience, and been something we would have been the better for having read.  🐢