Secret challenges
Chien Chen used to work for a magazine and publishing house, but now she devotes herself entirely to writing and being a mother. In 1991, she created the Big Goose publishing house, which specialized in publishing literary works. Big Goose was fastidious about paper quality, binding and layout, but author Fu Yueh-an says that in the period before Eslite Bookstore and the Internet, Chien Chen was swimming against the tide. Eventually, she resigned herself to closing the business. Nowadays Big Goose books are staples of the used-book trade.
Chien Chen says that when she is creating she never considers commercial potential. Although she has a basic market, sales of her old books only bring her about NT$100-150,000 a year. From this, it's easy to see the financial hardships writers endure.
"With these kind of earnings, it's extremely tough to devote oneself to writing. And to give oneself over to the distractions of a day job presents great difficulties to maintaining creative output. It comes down to making a choice between the job market and writing." Even in adversity, she is quite content with her own choice. She says that she is very interested in knowing what she can accomplish in literature over the course of her life. She calls it "a secret challenge."
Just as her creative work often surprises with its beauty, Chien Chen, who previously believed that she would never marry or have children, eventually not only ended up having a family but ended up being very happy about it.
Although she gives the impression of being not concerned with worldly success, when it comes to her child she says that she is determined to encourage his competitiveness because ultimately people are responsible for their own lives. "Learning has always had unpleasant aspects, but it's a kind of discipline," she says. "It has to be trained."
She mentions that when her son meets difficulties and becomes teary eyed, he says, "I don't know why God made me." And Chien responds: "God made you because he thought you could overcome."
Her coffee finished and lunchtime nearing, Chien Chen rises to depart. She leaves with this comment: "Don't forget: when something happens, it's often the solution to an earlier problem."
Perhaps it is only this kind of tenacity that allows Chien Chen in the difficult literary environment of Taiwan to surpass her own heights. Or perhaps it is through her pen that we continue to realize the literary passions that we held as youths.
She is a literary dream that we have all had-or are still to have.