In every society around the globe, young people attempt to find their path from childhood to adulthood. As in many other developed societies, the young people of Taiwan are expected to follow a prescribed course involving intensive academics to score high marks on school examinations. As is true in both reality and fiction, not everyone desires this type of life, and young people sometimes decide to choose their own path. These bildungsroman, or coming-of-age, stories contain colorful snapshots of life seen from an emerging adult’s point of view. They also often explore the less savory side of life as the teenage protagonist’s lifestyle exposes them to harsh or even tragic circumstances.

During the early 90’s, author Chang Ta-Chun wrote a newspaper serial entitled the “Weekly Report of Young Big Head Spring” which ran from June 1991 to June 1992. The character Big Head Spring, a Taipei delinquent with a chip on his shoulder, wrote a series of journal entries in which he sarcastically and humorously describes growing up as a middle school student in mid-1980s Taiwan, a turbulent time in Taiwan’s history. The nation was transforming its government from a state of martial law to a more stable democracy. The serial led to the publication of two novellas, My Kid Sister (1993) and Wild Child (1996), narrated by Big Head Spring. These novellas were published together as Wild Kids by Columbia University Press in 2020.  

In My Kid Sister, a 27-year-old Spring brings into focus the journey of his sister who is eight years his junior as they grew up in their dysfunctional three-generation home. Through a series of time jumps where Spring is a child, a teenager, and a young adult, he watches his sister try to find her footing with quarreling grandparents, a mentally unstable mother, and an abusive father. The narrative makes accessible to the reader the good, bad, and just weird parts of growing up. 

In Wild Child, Spring describes his journey as a high school dropout who runs away and ends up in the Taiwan underworld of gangs and crime. Spring tells his story with humor and sarcastic wit mixed with the true innocence of a child living somewhere children were never meant to be.  

The irreverent style and unique (for the time) point of view made the books wildly popular when they came out. Even though these novellas were originally published more than a quarter century ago, Wild Kids still finds relevance and resonates with both young audiences and those who want to relive the period described in the novellas.

Wild Kids: Two Novels About Growing Up

Written by Chang Ta-Chun

In Chinese (Taiwan)

My Sister (我妹妹)

Originally published in 1993

2008, Yin Ke

ISBN: 9789866631269

Wild Child (野孩子)

Originally published in 1996

In English (United States)

Translated by Michael Berry

2002, Columbia University Press

ISBN：9780231120975

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Chang, T. (2020). Wild Kids: The Novels About Growing Up (M. Berry, Trans.). Columbia 

University Press. (Original works published in 1993, 1996) 

Chi, Pang-yuan (1993). “Weekly Report of Young Big Head Chun”. Taiwan Panorama.  

https://www.taiwan-panorama.com/Articles/Details?Guid=17c4f2b9-8576-4d53-83a6-22420e18aadb&langId=3&CatId=7. Accessed  3 August 2024.

“Wild Kids”. Columbia University Press.

  https://cup.columbia.edu/book/wild-kids/9780231120975. Accessed 3 August 2024.

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Floyd Lima is an international school teacher-librarian in New Taipei City, Taiwan. He is originally from southern California but has lived in Taiwan for 17 years and is a permanent resident. He enjoys bringing amazing books to his students’ attention and helping them discern what kind of stories will bring them joy and shape them into critical thinkers.

Curator

Eleanor Duggan is a passionate children’s book reader, a storytelling enchantress, an aspiring globetrotter, a part-time book crafter, and an impassioned foodie who is a cooking disaster. She is more known as an international school teacher-librarian and the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) Regional Director for East Asia. She is a Taiwanese with a Belgian soul and is currently enjoying her life as a citizen of the world with her daughter and their 2 one-of-a kind cats. You may find her via The Third Culture Librarian 

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