By Stephen Che The China Post 2005/9/23
Illiterate just three years ago, 73-year-old grandmother Liu Hsien-mei laughed as she described her engagement after writing about it in her own autobiography "A Woman in the Mountains" published last week.
"The six months after I was engaged my father did not seek to control me as much as before. I felt free and it was the happiest time of my life," said Liu, who learned how to read and write by attending cram school three years ago.
The book revolves around the stages of Liu's life in the mountains, including schooling under Japanese colonial rule, dealing with a patriarchal family, arranged marriage, having children, and details of her chores on the farm.
The mother of two daughters and one son in Kaohsiung County, Liu started writing the book after her children began to work in the fields, giving her a lot of spare time, while also being urged on by her younger sister Liu Chu-ying. Liu Chu-ying said that Liu Hsien-mei would often tell her stories whenever they would get together, and she felt that her older sister should record those stories in her own book.
In the process of completing the book, Liu had to rewrite it three times -- the first two times by hand, and the third time by entering Chinese characters stroke by stroke on the computer using phonetic symbols.
Another problem that Liu had to overcome in writing her book was natural disasters. When a typhoon brought flooding to Liu's village and the entire community had to evacuate, the first thing that she grabbed on the way out was her unfinished manuscript. "I want the book to a treasure that can be passed down to future generations," she said.
After taking one year to write, Liu printed 25 copies of her first handwritten manuscript using a copy machine. She originally planned to give them away to friends and relatives, but later discovered that other people became interested in her work as well. More copies of Liu's manuscript were printed and given away, even Liu's own personal copy.
Although without indentation and punctuation marks, the 30,000 word, sixty-page manuscript even gained attention by a radio station in southern Taiwan which read excerpts of Liu's work during its daily broadcast.
Liu, who enjoys singing karaoke, reading, browsing the Internet, and socializing with friends, is not content after finishing her book. She said that the next thing she wants to do is to learn how to paint.