Zhong Lihe (1915-1960) grew up in a village in Pingtung and spent his early adulthood working on his father's remote hill farm in Meinong. In between and after, he spent considerable time in Taiwan's cities, chiefly Kaohsiung and Taipei, as well as in Mukden and Peking in Mainland China. Most of his earliest stories were written on the Mainland when he was in his mid to late-twenties, and many of those are set in Manchuria and China. His work realistically and humanely critiques and celebrates the problems and riches of the communities and cultures he knew, particularly the Hakka Chinese peasantry of his native rural South Taiwan. T. M. McClellan was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Tweeddale in the Scottish Borders. He earned his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Edinburgh and specialized in modern Chinese literature. He is the author of Zhang Henshui and Popular Chinese Fiction, 1919-1949. Zhong Tiejun is Zhong Lihe's third and only surviving son. He is known as a literary writer on family and Meinong affairs.

Foreword by Zhong Tiejun Sources, Translations, and Acknowledgments Translator's Introduction Part 1: Formative Years 1. My Grandma from the Mountains 2. First Love 3. From the Old Country Part 2: Stories from the Old Country 4. In the Willow Shade 5. Oleander 6. The Fourth Day Part 3: Homeland 7. Zugteuzong 8. Forest Fire 9. Uncle A-Huang 10. My "Out-Law" and the Hill Songs Part 4: Meinong Lyrics 11. My Study 12. The Grassy Bank 13. The Plow and the Sky 14. The Little Ridge Part 5: Meinong Economics 15. Swimming and Sinking 16. Rain