Chung Li-ho


Zhong Lihe ; November 6, 1915 - August 4, 1960, was a Taiwanese novelist. He was a Liudui Hakka, born in Gaoshu Township, Pingtung in 1915, who migrated to Meinong (nearby and also part of the same sub-division of the Liudui :zh-tw:六堆|六堆, the Youdui in around 1932. Eloping with a woman because their same-surname relationship was taboo in their community, he resided in Shenyang and Beijing on the Chinese mainland - but, like Taiwan, under Japanese rule at the time - between 1938 and 1946. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 44 in Meinong whilst revising his last and possibly finest work, a novella entitled "Rain".

Legacy

There is a Zhong Lihe Memorial Institute dedicated to Zhong located in Meinong, Kaohsiung. His life has been dramatized as China, My Native Land, a 1980 film directed by Li Hsing; of which the eponymous theme song was sung by Teresa Teng. Zhong's eldest son Zhong Tiemin , 1941–2011, was an award-winning writer of fiction and prose. The asteroid 237187 Zhonglihe, discovered by Xiangyao Hsiao and Ye Quan-Zhi at Lulin Observatory in 2008, was named in his memory. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 12 October 2011.