Jiang Gui

Jiang Gui 姜貴, also Chiang Kuei, (1908–1980) was a Chinese novelist active in Taiwan.

Life and work

Jiang Gui was born in mainland China. As a young man, he was influenced by the May Fourth Movement (1919) and joined the Kuomintang at age 18 in Guangzhou. He married at age 29, and attended college in Beijing. In 1937 he joined the Chinese army as an officer, and served for eight years in the war against Japan in the Northern campaign (Hebei, Henan, Anhui). His mother and adopted mother were both killed by the Communists in 1945. He moved to Taiwan with the Kuomintang in 1948.

Jiang wrote novels from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. His first and second novels are his best known works: The Whirlwind (written 1952, published 1959) and Rival Suns (1961). Both are anti-communist; the first portrays Chinese communism in a rural setting, and the second within a city (Wuhan).

His third major novel was The Green Sea and the Blue Sky: A Nocturne (1964). It received little comment. A number of novels followed. Jiang lived in great poverty, and these books were mainly written for the money.

Selected works

• The whirlwind, by Chiang Kuei, translated by Timothy A. Ross. San Francisco : Chinese Materials Center, 1977.
• A Translation of the Chinese Novel Chung-Yang (Rival Suns) by Chiang Kuei (1908–1980), by Chiang Kuei, translated by Timothy A. Ross. Lewiston, N.Y. : E. Mellen press, 1999.