The Old Capital (short stories)

The Old Capital, published in 1996, is a collection of short stories written by Taiwanese female author Chu Tien-hsin (Chinese: 朱天心). Comprising four short stories and one novella, the book revolves around themes such as mainland Chinese immigrants’ national identity, personal identity, and relocation of military dependents' villages in Taiwan's capital, Taipei. The title of the book is borrowed from the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata's (Chinese/Japanese: 川端康成) novel The Old Capital, drawing parallels between the late 20th-century Taipei and the quiet, ancient, and timeless aspects of Kyoto, highlighting the disappearance of historical sites and the continuous silencing and rewriting of history in the wake of urbanization. An English version of this collection has been translated by renowned literary translator Howard Goldblatt and published by Columbia University Press (2007).

Through different focus of each story and carefully arranged intertextuality, The Old Capital blends Eastern and Western references from titles to content, and is closely related to three stories from In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound (想我眷村的兄弟們), another story collection of Chu. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (第凡內早餐) borrows its title from Truman Capote’s story with the same name; the title of Death in Venice (威尼斯之死) is the same as Thomas Mann’s iconic novel and its story content is related to “My Friend Alisa” (我的朋友阿里薩); Man of La Mancha (拉曼查志士) is not unlike a sequel to Chronicle of a Death Foretold (預知死亡紀事, whose title is from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel with the same name); Hungarian Water (匈牙利之水) is related to In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound, allowing readers to connect personal memories and imagination while reading. All of these are expressed by the author Chu with the statement, "Is it possible that none of your memories count?" and signifies her reluctance to accept the constant passing and changing of things that once existed.

While analyzing the book The Old Capital, scholar Kenichiro Shimizu (Chinese/Japanese: 清水賢一郎) states that Chu's literary work centers on the frustration within memory and self-identity. He also comments that Chu's seemingly chaotic and disordered narrative of memory is based on historical context. Scholar Liou Liang-ya (Chinese: 劉亮雅) comments that Chu’s novel starts from a sense of loss felt by the military-dependent village community as they gradually lost their advantage after martial law was lifted. Compared to her previous work In Remembrance of My Buddies from the Military Compound (想我眷村的兄弟們), she actively attempts to break through the cognitive closure, hoping to engage in dialogue with other communities, positioning her work in a continuous debate between the memories of two different communities, like a journey of memories that constantly intertwines.