2021.09.16

Work has recently commenced on the construction of the building which will house the Wang Mo-jen and Chou An-yi Hall of Literature. The building has been designed by noted architect Huang Sheng-yuan(黃聲遠), who has designed the building to blend into the undulating landscape on the south side of campus, complete with an adjacent footpath.

 

Major funding for the project has been provided by the late novelist Wang Mo-jen(王默人) and his wife, Chou An-yi(周安儀). Situated between Xiangsi Lake and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the site has a distant view of the public artwork LeafLeaf on the lawn in front of the TSMC Building, and the building is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2022.

 

Since Chou lives in the United States, and was unable to attend the groundbreaking ceremony due to the pandemic, both Wang and Chou were represented by their daughter Wang Muchun(王慕淳). During the ceremony she received on their behalf a glass model of the Museum from NTHU president Hocheng Hong. The unique souvenir was designed and handcrafted by Huang and Shiao Ming-tun(蕭銘芚), assistant dean of NTHU’s College of Arts.

 

The Museum will archive and display the manuscripts and publications of Wang and Chou, as well as related memorabilia, and is destined to play a key role in the promotion of Taiwanese literature. The four-story building will include an exhibition hall, a lecture hall, a library, a meeting room, and an 80-seat open-air theater for bringing literature to life.

 

Huang, the lead architect of Fieldoffice Architects, said that the building has a dynamic feel and is designed to seamlessly blend in with the surrounding hills and trees. Approaching the building from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, you enter on the third floor, and exiting on the first floor brings you to directly to Xiangsi Lake. The design is inspired by Wang’s novels, especially the tunnel in The Lower StratumThe Lower Stratum (1976).

 

President Hocheng said that Wang and Chou, both prolific writers, have used their unique talents to champion the cause of those on the lower echelons of Taiwanese society. In recognition of his extraordinary literary achievements, NTHU nominated Wang for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. In addition to this building, in 2014 Wang and Chou provided funds for establishing the Wang Mo-jen and Chou An-yi Lecture Series, which organizes talks and workshops by noted writers and scholars from Taiwan and abroad.  

 

Recalling the many hardships that her father had to overcome in pursuing his career as a writer, Wang said that, in telling the story of those struggling on the lower levels of Taiwanese society during the martial law era, he stepped on the wrong feet, and in 1985 he had little choice but to flee to the United States, where he put his creative writing on hold for the time being. In this connection, he once remarked, “Perhaps the worst thing about leaving was that in doing so I had severed my connection with Taiwan and its people, the suffering of whom I had become so familiar with and which has become my main inspiration for writing.”

 

In the United States Wang kept a low profile, until in 2011 a student of Professor Chen Chienchung(陳建忠) of NTHU’s Institute of Taiwanese literature completed a thesis on Wang, ushering in a new era of interest in Wang’s work. As an expression of thanks, in 2014 Wang and Chou helped establish the Wang Mo-jen and Chou An-yi Lecture Series. In 2015 Wang received an honorary doctorate of literature from Tsinghua University.