The Monkey and the Dragon: A True Story about Friendship, Music, Politics and Life on the Edge

by Linda Jaivin

Memoir, biography and travel book, The Monkey and the Dragon is a story about China like nothing you’ve ever read. This is a book about friendship, music, politics and life on the edge. Linda Jaivin first met Taiwan pop star Hou Dejian in 1981. His song ‘Heirs of the Dragon’ was the unifying anthem of an awakening generation in Taiwan, Hong Kong and on mainland China.

In June 1983 Hou defected to communist China, a stunning and bizarre move which shocked his friends and fans. In 1989 he was one of the last hunger-strikers on Tiananmen Square where he saved the lives of thousands of protestors, and later, with Linda’s help, took refuge in the Australian Embassy in Beijing. After seventy days he returned to the streets but wouldn’t be silenced. In 1990 the authorities abducted him and put him on a fishing boat bound for Taiwan where he became a fengshui master. He still writes the occasional song.

Genres: China, Memoir

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Linda Jaivin is the author of twelve books, including the forthcoming (May 2021) The Shortest History of China and the novel The Empress Lover, published in April 2014 as well as the travel companion Beijing, published in July 2014. Other major publications include the Quarterly Essay: Found in Translation (late 2013), five novels and a novella, a collection of essays (Confessions of an S&M Virgin) and a China memoir (Monkey and the Dragon). Her first novel was the internationally bestselling comic erotic Eat Me. The Empress Lover follows A Most Immoral Woman, which is set in China and Japan in 1904 and based on a true story. She is also a translator from Chinese and a playwright. She was the winner of the 2014 New South Wales Writers Fellowship.

Reviews

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It took a long time to get through as a train commute read, but was interesting enough to keep persevering. I don't know a great deal about the current Taiwan-China relationship except the basic history, so this was a pretty fascinating insight into the life of someone who is a dissident on both sides of the conflict. I had also always assumed that those of us outside China had a much better grasp of what happened at Tiananmen Square due to our lack of Internet censorship, but even though I studied Chinese history at school I had no idea the conflict actually happened outside the square, that the students actually managed to evacuate safely. And this evacuation was facilitated by a pop-star! Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.

[Sarah Neofield · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a journey. I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Linda Jaivin's "The Monkey and the Dragon", but it was an incredibly enthralling read. At once a very personal tale, and a detailed examination of two countries, it is hard to say what is more interesting - Jaivin's account of her own, and her subject, popstar Hou Dejian's fascinating lives, or her more expansive evocation of China and Taiwan during an immensely important period. This is one of those books you come away from feeling enriched in your perspective and understanding.