Time Flies

"The Resident in Taipei" indicates that Bai Xianyong is on the way to maturity in his novel writing. A deep tragedy consciousness overflows in the whole book, which is made up of three parts.In the first part, the writer made an analysis of the lost Taipei citizens in the various times and places, who are the colony overlooked by the history, loving the past and looking forward to no good future. All of them, nobles or humbles, are the protagonists of the tragedy.The dreary scenes in the second part are all from the writer's visions and experiences because of his country and his own background. In this novel, death, dusk and so on is the carriers of Mr. Bai's thoughts, which are used for the expressions of feelings of a bleak prospect.In the last part, the mental experience of affliction is the concern of Mr. Bai. His childhood experiences entitle him to be capable of expressing such thoughts with physical and mental qualifications, which also make him pay more attention to the sufferings of human with esthetics. And his esthetic tendency is gradually strengthened by his cultural environment in that sympathy is the core part focused on the agony from the soul of man.