A historian’s historical novel! Puppet Flower is a narrative novel based on real events, a watershed moment in Taiwanese (Formosan) history when the United States and Western colonizing powers begin to encroach on Taiwan in earnest. The novel begins with an unfortunate event, wherein an American ship encounter one of Formosa’s indigenous tribes after surviving a storm at sea. The surviving crew — including a woman — are murdered by the Formosans, triggering a series of investigations and the arrival of more Western ships and military.

What makes Chen’s novel special in this genre of historical fiction is that Western perspectives are well-balanced with indigenous ones. It is rare to encounter fiction focused on Taiwan’s indigenous community, historical or otherwise; in highlighting their unique experience here Chen offers readers and the world at large a rare and unique literary opportunity. The result is a fantastic novel that — in my opinion — would do well in the classroom for a number of reasons aside from its historical focus:

The story arc is peppered with references and information about Formosan culture, providing a context for the historical events themselves. Unlike many historical novels, which rarely explain the cultural references they point to, Chen writes for the non-expert.
Puppet Flower offers multiple perspectives rather than focusing on a single protagonist. In this case, the novel allows us to see the event from an indigenous and Western point of view.
The prose is straightforward and not superciliously literary, making this an ideal undergraduate book; it does not require a great deal of knowledge about literary tropes, metaphors, and other devices typically used in novels. This is, truly, a history novel.
Overall, a novel of great historical value, not only in terms of its content, but in its production. This is decolonization at work, a piece of scholarship that highlights the indigenous perspective, a view of the imperial encounter from those who were colonized.

Quite the interesting read! I admittedly found Yao-Chang Chen’s translated prose to be a little on the dry side. However, that was balanced out in turn by all that I was able to learn and experience as I worked my way through chapter by chapter.

Until now, any work that I book or story that I have encountered that’s set in Taiwan, be it fiction or nonfiction, has taken place around the establishment of the Republic of China or later. In regards to Taiwan’s past as a major intersection between imperial China, expansionist Japan and various overseas European forces, I’ve only been able to read a little bit. And with regards to Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, I’ve read even less. So I happily welcomed all that “Puppet Flower” was able to teach me through its plot based upon historical events, its mixed cast of fictional and real life characters, and just all of the detail in general. Especially anything relating to the island’s various aboriginal tribes. I loved that I went from knowing barely anything about these peoples to learning more than I ever thought would be possible.

So again, a genuinely intriguing read overall. And in my opinion, definitely a strong recommendation for those who prefer their historical fiction to go off the beaten path.

When most people think about Taiwan (formerly Formosa) nowadays, they likely think of the conflict between them and China and the constant threat of attack. Yet this book, which has been translated from Chinese into English, gives us a broader perspective. It is historical fiction and based closely on the real-life events. Much is seen of the fearsome aborigines of 1867, whom in many ways had gotten a bad rap and who inhabited a large swathe of the island, especially the mountain areas.

Their woe was when one group, the Koalut tribe massacred survivors of the American ship, the Rover, in mistaken retaliation of Red-Hairs who'd killed many of their people years ago. This got American, British and the Qing goverment involved. It tells also of the Hokkien and Hakka people who'd come over from the China mainland, and took up more territory, encroaching on tribal land, adding further aggravation.

What initially sparked my interest in this book was the title, Puppet Flower - a nickname for Butterfly, the daughter of a Hakka man and a "raw savage" mother, who'd hailed from the Puppet Mountains. She had a brother Bunkiet who was also a major story character along with Tauketok, Pickering, General Charles LeGendre, and General Liu, who represented the Qing government. These all figured in the balance of 'to war or not to war' due to the Rover incident.

In later years, Taiwan was taken over by the Japanese, adding a whole new kettle of fish.

Some places of the book dragged a bit, however, I was mostly kept interested all along the way. Was somewhat disappointed with the ending as it became more about Le Gendre and less about Butterfly, the Puppet Flower. All in all, it was a statisfying read and I learned more about Taiwan and it's strategic position in the world.

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

October 2022

Disclaimer: This my honest opinion based on the complimentary copy sent by NetGalley and the Publisher.