Book Review: A Pail Of Oysters

This is a novel called A Pail of Oysters. A book that, although published in 1953, was scarcely available until recently. A book banned for decades and passed around in secret, a book that the government hated so much they sent people to steal and destroy copies from even the libraries overseas too. If you were caught reading this book, you could die. But the story inside this book is simultaneously tragic and beautiful. The story deserves to be told. This is a story so incredibly intertwined with culture, gender, and sex; in fact, this book exists because of the clash and kaleidoscope of cultures.

Set on the island of Formosa, Japanese occupation has ended and the Chinese Nationalist party has since seized power. Originally welcomed with open arms of those tired of suffering, they could not predict the suffering yet to come. Amidst massacres, rampant looting, and discrimination, the 38 year period of martial law is now referred to as the White Terror. White, like the sun on the flag that flew over the people with menace. But it was this white sun that brought 4 lives together, 4 individuals from such diverse walks of life that it seems almost impossible. But sometimes, the impossible happens.

Didi, or “little brother”, nameless because he did not care for the name given by the one who sold him, or the one who bought him. Precious Jade, the older sister of Didi who was sold alongside him but into prostitution instead, like hundreds of other girls. Identical in socioeconomic status, family, and ethnicity, the one difference of sex and gender between them is enough to bring Precious Jade and Didi to 2 opposite fates: while Didi is treated as a loved son to carry on his adopted father’s name and also to worship his grave when his father passes on, Precious Jade is thrust into the world of slavery and prostitution. Seen prominently in Asia, males were normally valued exponentially more than females, due to the mindset that they could earn more in an agrarian economy and carry on the family name. Imagine that from the moment you are born, you are expected to fill a pair of shoes created not to fit you individually, but to fit every person biologically identical. Precious Jade and Didi were referred to as Formosan back then, but now more commonly known as Holo. When life becomes too unbearable, their only option left is to run, and so run they do.

Li Liu, a 19 year old Pepohuan, a mix of Hakka and Taiyal blood running through his veins, from the tidal flats of Chunghua. Thrust abruptly into bustling, urban Taipei from his village, he has to find and retrieve his family’s paper god stolen by the corrupt soldiers. When he encounters Didi and Precious Jade on the run as well, they become an assembly of 3.

And then you have Ralph Barton, American journalist currently residing in Formosa, gradually realizing the horrors of massacre and oppression behind the facade of supposed freedom and harmony as he’s drawn into the underground resistance. Offering Didi a job ultimately draws the group of 4 into an overall amiable friendship. The phrase “Formosans stick together” rang in the ears of many in those times. Under an oppressive regime, a culture of unity and togetherness was cultivated, making each Formosan partly responsible for the well-being of another. It is these words they seemed to abide to, committing their decisions and sacrifices in consideration of those in their circle instead of just themselves.

These 4 people are more than a single story, but this particular story is different in a way because it is the end of their life for some, and the end of a period for the others. At the beginning, things start looking up for everyone. With fair employment secured at the new journalists’ club for Didi, Precious Jade, and Li Liu and new friendships budding for Barton, tragedy is the last thing on anybody’s minds right now. But this being the White Terror and them being the abused, it was only natural that tragedy be on their heels. The owner of Precious Jade and Didi thirsted for revenge, to avenge the loss of his boughten son and slave, and he exacts his revenge by reporting them to the police for being Communist, knowing the fatality of this branding. The greatest enemy and threat to the Chinese Nationalist party, anyone labelled as Communist almost always faced certain death, or torture and imprisonment. Despite the fact that the people of Formosa had in their history never encountered or endorsed communism yet, thousands of people disappeared because of their supposed threat to the party.

Likewise, Precious Jade and Didi were seized out of their house and soon brought to the racetrack, where they were executed. All this happened while Barton frantically sought out all possible avenues of liberation for his new friends in the middle of the night, but besides realising that his powers were limited on this tyrannical island, he also came to realize that most of the people who could make a difference simply did not care for the people of Formosa, instead choosing to turn a blind eye in favour of filling their pockets with a fortune. And so his friends perished while he stood helplessly as the sun rose.

Coming from a part of a world where democracy and freedom had been established not only as privileges but almost an essential right, Barton experiences culture shock and disorientation from the stark contrast to his own home, also learning that his influence as a westerner is still not enough to save lives. Laying their bodies to rest being the only thing left Barton could do for his dead friends, he encounters a distraught Li Liu a couple nights later, and to shed a ray of light on their grief-stricken disposition, buys back his friend’s god from a pawn shop before driving him back to his village in the tidal flatlands.

However, it was only by chance that Li Liu escaped the same fate as his friends and he knew that returning to his home would only endanger his family alongside him, who still remained a target. So burning his god alone and forever giving up his home, he runs to find his Taiyal tribe brothers in the high mountains where they live. Barton resolves to stay in Formosa, to use his journalism to reveal in his writing “the ignorance of a small group who not only enslaved 8 million people, but who endangered all of Asia”

All these cultures intermingling cause an explosion which sets off a series of events that may not have otherwise occurred. Throughout history, we see again and again that the fusion of different cultures often causes clashes instead of coherence. Betrayal, mistrust, and hate filled every crevice of the island, threatening to drown it. But over time, reconciliation and repentance heals wounds, and although scars yet remain, harmony and appreciation can be found in coexistence.