Sanmao (author)
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Sanmao (三毛) (March 26, 1943 - January 4, 1991), literally "thirty cents", was the penname of the popular Taiwanese author Chen Ping (陳平). She claimed that "thirty cents" was the value of her work, which is why she used this penname. In English she was also known as Echo, her English first name, or Echo Chan.
Sanmao was born in China, and the whole family moved to Taiwan later. She was said to have read the Dream of the Red Chamber, a famous Chinese classic, at the age of five and a half years old. In elementary school, she had read much literature. During her second year of high school, she shut herself up due to a traumatic indicent, and refused to go to school. Her father bought many books for her to read at home, allowed her to take piano lessons, and practice painting.
From 1965 to 1969, she studied philosophy, and it was during this period that she experienced her first love. Thing didn't work out, so she planned to go as far away as possible, and ended up in Spain.
Between 1967 and 1970 she studied in Spain, and then in Germany, and later found work in a law library in the state of Illinois in the US. Eventually, she returned back to Taiwan and began working as a teacher. Her then fiance died, and it was at this time that she again left Taiwan and returned to Spain.
In 1974 she went to the Sahara desert (in what is now Western Sahara) and married a man named Jose, whom she met in Spain 7 years before when she was a student. In 1976 she published her first work, entitled The Stories of the Sahara. With its immense success, her early writings were collected in a second book, published under the title Gone was the rainy season. Her writings continued to be published from that point on, and her experiences in the Sahara and the Canary Islands were published in several more books.
In 1979 her husband drowned while diving (there is still speculation that her husband did not die). In 1980 she returned to Taiwan, and in November of the same year, she traveled to Central and South America. These experiences were recorded in another of her books. From 1981 to 1984, she taught in a Taiwanese university. After this point, she decided to dedicate herself fully to writing.
At the age of 48, Sanmao died in a hospital in Taipei. Most people believe that it was a suicide, though some, most notably Zhang Jingran, claimed it was a murder. Her apparent suicide came as a shock to many of her readers.
Sanmao's books deal mainly with her own experiences studying and living abroad. They were extremely well-received in both the Republic of China and Mainland China, and they remain very popular. From 1976 to the time of her death in 1991, Sanmao published more than 20 books. She had also translated the comic Mafalda from Spanish to Chinese.
