山爷

Lord of the Mountain

Huang Chun-ming's Latest Novel Collection

When hatred fades like listening to someone else's misfortunes, it is the belated rebirth of fear and the birth of faith.
Old Mr. Xie Kuguan, who lives alone in the mountain village of "Hejiaozhuang," always mutters to himself: "It's changed, it's changed, it's changed, it's changed..."
Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s experienced countless changes in regimes and social upheavals. The land was shrouded in a tense atmosphere, but Xie Kuguan's later life became active again. One day, nuns and volunteers from the St. Mary's Nursing Home visited him, opening up his long-sealed heart. The old man's charm and warmth swept through the nursing home, making the volunteers eagerly invite him to become a resident. But it seemed that a force was holding him back, unable to leave this beautiful but decaying mountain village.
However, the invasion of fire, his weakening body, and the lingering echoes of laughter... shook his faith and contradictions, and he finally moved into the St. Mary's Nursing Home as he wished. What he didn't expect was that this decision stirred up a storm in his heart, awakening a three-legged wild boar that had been deeply hidden in his heart for many years.
Going back fifty years to Hejiaozhuang, that wild boar was spiritual and unusually large, causing various thrilling incidents. Did it bring the young Xie Kuguan half a lifetime of hatred, or an unexpected treasure that could stir people's hearts?
Huang Chun-ming's long-awaited new work, "Lord of the Mountain," once again portrays the "changes" and "unchanging" warm and passionate character of the lives of ordinary people in Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s. It explores the land covered by this mountain forest, the past fermented by time, bringing readers the bitter-sweet life insights, and discovering Taiwan's diverse religious culture through the interesting interactions of ordinary people.