This wonderful collection of stories introduces the English reader to the beautiful prose of Zhong Lihe, often regarded as the founding father of Taiwan's 'native soil literature.' Zhong's is a major voice in Taiwanese literature. His work brings out all the complexities of Taiwanese history and society: the transition from Japanese to Chinese rule, the fraught relationship with the Mainland, and the rich variety of ethnicities and languages on the island itself. In these stories, Zhong ranges from nostalgic rural idylls to harsh realist observations, mostly set in his hometown of Meinong and also drawn from his to? sojourns in occupied Peking and the puppet-state Manchuria. The English translation by T. M. McClellan masterfully captures the mood of the stories. From the Old Country is a very welcome addition to the growing body of English translations of Sinophone literature.

Zhong Lihe (1915–1960) grew up in a village in Pingtung and spent his early adulthood working on his father's remote hill farm in Meinong. In between and after, he spent considerable time in Taiwan's cities, chiefly Kaohsiung and Taipei, as well as in Mukden and Peking in Mainland China. Most of his earliest stories were written on the Mainland when he was in his mid to late-twenties, and many of those are set in Manchuria and China. His work realistically and humanely critiques and celebrates the problems and riches of the communities and cultures he knew, particularly the Hakka Chinese peasantry of his native rural South Taiwan.

T. M. McClellan was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders. He earned his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Edinburgh and specialized in modern Chinese literature. He is the author of Zhang Henshui and Popular Chinese Fiction, 1919–1949.

Zhong Tiejun is Zhong Lihe's third and only surviving son. He is known as a literary writer on family and Meinong affairs.

Foreword by Zhong Tiejun
Sources, Translations, and Acknowledgments
Translator's Introduction
Part 1: Formative Years
1. My Grandma from the Mountains
2. First Love
3. From the Old Country
Part 2: Stories from the Old Country
4. In the Willow Shade
5. Oleander
6. The Fourth Day
Part 3: Homeland
7. Zugteuzong
8. Forest Fire
9. Uncle A-Huang
10. My "Out-Law" and the Hill Songs
Part 4: Meinong Lyrics
11. My Study
12. The Grassy Bank
13. The Plow and the Sky
14. The Little Ridge
Part 5: Meinong Economics
15. Swimming and Sinking
16. Rain