Crystal Boys

Name: Crystal Boys
ISBN: 9787563397655

Pai Hsien-yungGuangxi Normal University Press · ChinaDec 2021

4.4

Word count: 209K words
Chapters: 6
ISBN: 9787563397655

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Summary

Crystal Boys is Bai Xianyong's only full-length novel. Themed on homosexuality, it is divided into four chapters — “Exile,” “In Our Kingdom,” “Happy Land,” and “The Journey of the Youthful Birds” — and depicts a group of “crystal boys” living in Taipei during the 1960s and 1970s, abandoned by their families and forsaken by society. The author's dedication reads: “For those children who wander alone in the deepest, darkest nights, with nowhere to return.” The theme of conflict between father and son also leaves a deep impression on readers.

Editor's review

Crystal Boys is Pai Hsien-yung's only novel. It takes homosexuality as its subject and portrays the fate of a group of young people in Taipei in the 1960s and 1970s who were exiled by their families and marginalized by society. The book is divided into four chapters—"Exile," "In Our Kingdom," "Paradise" and "The Travels of Those Youthful Birds"—with a clear structure and vivid group portraits. Father-son conflict is one of the core themes running through the book, depicting both individual emotional struggle and the pressure of family ethics and social prejudice. Pai Hsien-yung's narration is restrained yet full of compassion. The epigraph—"To those children who, in the deepest, deepest night, wander the streets alone, with nowhere to belong"—sets the emotional tone of the whole book. For readers interested in the writing of marginalized groups, family ethics, and urban space narrative in Chinese-language literature, this novel has enduring reading value; it is also suitable as a shared text for discussing literary and social issues.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the writing of marginalized groups and homosexuality in Chinese-language literature
Literary readers interested in father-son conflict and family ethics
Readers who want to read Pai Hsien-yung's works systematically, especially his only novel
Reading groups willing to discuss literary and social issues together

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for light, warm family stories
Readers sensitive to marginalized-group subject matter and a repressive atmosphere

Reading tips

Read through in the order of the four chapters, noting the structural progression from "Exile" to "Travels" and the changes in character relationships.
While reading, note the family backgrounds and circumstances of the main characters to help clarify the group portraits.
After finishing, write brief reading notes on the two themes of father-son conflict and marginalized survival to deepen understanding.

About the publisher

Guangxi Normal University Press China · Founded in 1986

Guangxi Normal University Press is a publisher known for literature, foreign literature and history titles. Its 1,175 books in the database show a solid accumulation in classics and prose collections, including foreign literary works such as Les Fleurs du mal: Annotated Poems of Baudelaire, Snow Country, Dubliners and The Wild Palms, as well as modern prose compilations like The Complete Prose of Zhou Zuoren. History and philosophy also hold a notable share, with titles such as Running Dogs: Clerks and Runners in Qing County Yamen and The History and Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflecting attention to Qing local administration and modern history. In art literature there is the 16-volume Ten Bamboo Studio Painting and Calligraphy Manual. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles Baudelaire and Yasunari Kawabata, translators and annotators Liu Nanqi and Zou Bo, and scholars such as Zhong Shuhe, Bradly W. Reed and You Chenjun. As public information is limited, this characterization is based only on the books in the database, which together present a profile balancing Chinese and foreign literary classics with academic works in the humanities and social sciences.

版权信息
第一部放逐
第二部在我们的王国里
第三部安乐乡
第四部那些青春鸟的行旅
附录

FAQ

Is Crystal Boys Pai Hsien-yung's only novel?

Yes. According to the materials, Crystal Boys is Pai Hsien-yung's only novel. It consists of four chapters and revolves around a group of young people in Taipei marginalized by family and society.

What are the main characters and structure of the book?

The book is divided into four chapters—"Exile," "In Our Kingdom," "Paradise" and "The Travels of Those Youthful Birds"—and depicts a group of "crystal boys" abandoned by their families and left behind by society, presenting their circumstances and emotions through group portraits.

Where is the theme of father-son conflict reflected in the book?

Father-son conflict is an important theme running through the book. Through the tense relations between the exiled young people and their families and fathers, it presents the multiple pressures between individual emotion, family ethics, and social prejudice.

Do I need prior knowledge of homosexual-themed literature to read this book?

Not necessarily. The novel centers on characters' circumstances and emotions, and general readers can enter it directly; for deeper discussion, extended reading can be done from perspectives such as marginalized-group writing and family ethics.

Comments

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About the author

Pai Hsien-yung Author · Taiwan, China · 1937

Pai Hsien-yung was born in Guilin, Guangxi, in 1937. He is of Hui ethnicity and the son of the Kuomintang general Bai Chongxi. After graduating from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University, he went to the United States and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. He taught for many years at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and retired in 1994. His fiction and essays, notably Taipei People, Crystal Boys, and The Lost Youth, often draw on individual fates amid historical change and on the lives of marginalized groups. His style is delicate and restrained, combining a sense of era with human depth. Beyond fiction, he has long devoted himself to promoting and explaining Dream of the Red Chamber and to the young-lovers' edition of The Peony Pavilion. The collection includes thirteen of his works, spanning social fiction, literary appreciation, essays, and biography, showing a writing life that crosses fiction and commentary and remains concerned with cultural inheritance and human destiny.