Li Ao

My impression of Li Ao (李敖) over the past several years was mainly of him as a vocal social commentator and an independent politician.

But I discovered other aspects of the Taiwanese after picking up the book 文化顽童 - 李熬被忽视的另一面 (Cultural Urchin - The Forgotten Side of Li Ao, Zhongguo Youyi Publishing House, 1999). These include Li as a hard-hitting writer, and a one-time husband of former Taiwanese actress Hu Yinmeng (胡茵梦).

In 1962, Li wrote an article castigating traditionalism within the Chinese culture. One aspect that he took to task was the 泛祖宗主义 (or pan-ancestors mentality).

An excerpt:

"俗语说, "穷极呼天, 痛极喊娘". 无知的人们遇到困难, 左冲右撞, 还是解决不了, 只好求救于"逆退" (regression) 心理, 退到穿开挡裤的时代, 拿出吃奶的力气, 喊几声妈. 因为在孩童时期每一叫妈, 问题就有人代为解决了, 所以总觉得叫妈很灵, 所以总想叫妈. 但叫妈是个人的事, 对一个民族而言, 人人叫妈成何体统? 于是聪明人想出一个好办法 - 叫孔夫子! 这真是一大发明! 因为这样一来, 天下大事就好办了, 孔子是我们 "泛祖宗主义" 的焦点, 是我们全民族的"父亲意象" (father image), 也是我们的弥赛亚. 不幸的是, 在300年来欧风美雨的吹打下, 我们的弥赛亚不但不灵, 反倒误了我们 - 我们想占祖宗的便宜, 结果反倒吃了大亏."

("As the saying goes "when in extreme poverty, cry out to the skies; when in extreme pain, cry out to mother". When ignorant people meet with difficulties and cannot seem to solve them, they have no choice but to resort to a regressive mindset. They will return to the era when they were still wearing open-crotch pants, and muster all the strength they can and start calling out to their mothers. Because when they were children, all problems were solved simply by shouting out to their mothers. Hence they feel that the method is very effective. But while calling out to one's mother is a personal matter, it is ludicrous if an entire nation resorts to doing so. So some clever people came up with a good idea - they'd call out to Kong Zi (Confucius)! This is really a great discovery! It seems to make things easy. Kong Zi is the focal point of our "pan-ancestor mentality", the father image of our entire people, as well as our Messiah. But unfortunately, after 300 years of turbulence inflicted upon us by Europe and America, not only is our Messiah ineffective, we have also been fooled. We wanted to take advantage of our ancestors, yet we ended up being the victims.")

As for being the one-time husband of Hu Yinmeng, well, the marriage reportedly lasted only 4 months and 22 days. According to Li, even when they were living together (presumably before their marriage), Kuomintang agents began to make life difficult for Hu.

The KMT made sure that Hu could not land any roles, and even threatened her to falsely testify against Li, who in 1980, was still seen as a troublemaker, even though by then he was no longer a jail-squatting political prisoner.

Li added that after Hu falsely testified against him, she was "rewarded" with the Golden Horse award. And after the two were divorced, Hu was allowed to return to her high-profile role as actress.

On his time spent in jail as a political prisoner, Li had this to say:

"坐牢的时候难免性欲冲动, 我就对自己说: 我的"大头"可以原谅他们(国民党), "小头"却不可以. 将来再坐牢一定要犯风化罪, "小头"害"大头"一次, 不要每次都是"大头"害"小头", 要反过来一次." 知道了吧!"

(When I was in jail, it was natural to have sexual impulses. So I told myself that while my "bigger head" can forgive them (the KMT), my "smaller head" cannot. If I have to go to jail again, it will have to be on charges of sexual crimes, so that the "smaller head" can, for once, get the "bigger head" into trouble. It should not always have to be the "bigger head" always getting the "smaller head" into trouble. There must be a reverse. You understand?!")