Big River, Big Sea: Year 1949

The year 1949 was a fateful year for over a million Chinese who, fleeing the civil war with the communists, came to Taiwan, hoping to follow the Nationalist government. As they mistakenly believed, they were “waiting out the rain.” Sixty years later, Long Yintai, the daughter of mainland immigrants born in Formosa, attempts to recreate the tragic era through her family’s history, as well as interviews and memoirs of those who participated in the events of that time. The author chooses the method of oral history and, bypassing the official narratives of the victors on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, seeks to find justice for an entire generation of exiles who found themselves hostages in the grip of history.

To reflect on the causes and consequences of the humanitarian catastrophe of the civil war, Long Yintai communicates with veterans and former prisoners of war, intellectuals and politicians, businessmen and peasants on both sides of the Strait. By piecing together a puzzle of fragments of human destinies, she dissects plots that reveal existential and moral dilemmas that still require critical and painful rethinking. In the broader context of Taiwan's colonial past, the historical events described, which befell different generations, also actualize the issues of Taiwanese identity and Chinese nationalism.

Due to its alternative view of the civil war, this novel is banned in the PRC.