Crossing Over

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“Which is the right thing to do， writing， or what I’m doing now？” asks Lung Ying-tai， after serving as Taiwan’s minister of culture for two years and three months. Lung， a critical yet humanistic writer and one of Taiwan’s most influential public figures， is known for wielding the island’s “most powerful pen.”

In May 2012， Lung took office as Taiwan’s minister of culture， her second stint as a government official after serving as the director of the Taipei Bureau of Culture， under the invitation of then Mayor Ma Ying-jeou from 1999 to 2013.

In 1984， Lung began writing a column in the Taiwanese newspaper the China Times， titled “Wild Fire.” Her articles， sharply critical of many aspects of life in Taiwan， particularly of the authoritarian Taiwanese government of the time， became widely popular. The next year， Wild Fire was published as a book. It sold out quickly， with a record-breaking 24 reprints in one month， and an eventual total of 100 re-prints.

Lung kept writing for three decades， publishing over 20 books including collections of essays， critiques and other works. In 2009， she published Big River Big Sea Untold Stories of 1949， an interview-based documentary-style publication that describes the cruelty of the civil war between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang （1945-1949）. Though banned on the mainland， the book still raised heated discussion on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Even now， it still ranks among the best-selling books on the island.

In China， becoming a prominent intellectual has long been recognized as an expedient path to becoming a government official. However， the first time Lung became an official in 1999， she met with controversy. Critics worried that her sharp edge might be blunted by dealing with the various competing interests in the political game， potentially dousing her “wildfire.” Also， Lung herself was completely new to the day-to-day work of politics. While she called the experience “exhausting，” she pushed through policies that developed local culture and protected forestry. In 2003， Lung left her post， and took up teaching jobs at colleges in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In 2012， shortly before Ma Ying-jeou was elected to his second term as Taiwanese leader， Lung accepted an invitation from Ma to take over as minister of culture. “I thought nothing could be harder than what I experienced from 1999 to 2003… But I was mistaken，” she says of the experience.

Lung was facing a very different Taiwan. The media placed her under intense scrutiny， and members of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan questioned her harder than her colleagues in Taipei City Council had. Lung says that at the time， Taiwanese people seemed more “anxious” than they had previously been. Street movements， she says， were threatening to destabilize democracy.