Career
His experiences during the colonial period, including fifteen months (January 1941-March 1942) spent in China, served as an inspiration for his most famous work, Orphan of Asia, a semi-autobiographical account of the experiences of a fictional protagonist—Hu Taiming—during the course of the colonial period. This work, which highlighted the ambiguity and tension inherent in being Taiwanese, has since become a key text in the contentious subject of Taiwanese identity. He is also known for his autobiography 無花果, translated by Duncan Hunter as The Fig Tree.