Escape and Return: Ghostly Representations of Home and Abroad in Kevin Chen’s “Summer Trilogy”

Kevin Chen (Chen Sihong 陳思宏; b. 1976) is a Berlin-based Taiwanese author known for his award-winning quasi-autobiographic family saga Ghost Town (鬼地方, 2019), which recounts the change of Chen’s hometown Yongjing, a rural township in central Taiwan. In 2020, Chen published Florida Metamorphosis (佛羅里達變形記), a dystopian tale about several teenagers’ unbridled adventures in Florida that ends in almost ineradicable guilt and resentment. In 2022, Chen completed his “Summer Trilogy” with the addition, The Good People Upstairs (樓上的好人), a novel straddling between Berlin and Yuanlin with a focus on the middle-aged heroine’s awakened sexuality and changed attitude toward homosexuality. Employing close reading, this chapter examines Chen’s portrayal of home (Yongjing and Yuanlin) and abroad (Florida and Berlin), especially its dialectics between the protagonists wanting to leave and being drawn back. It first analyzes the intertwining of homophobia and political authoritarianism, which makes Yongjing a ghost town. It then discusses the broken teenage protagonists’ failed escape from home and its implications in Florida Metamorphosis. Finally, it examines the repair of the “broken” body and familial relationships in The Good People Upstairs. It posits that Chen stands out from his peers for his continued exploration of many dark elements, such as homophobia, upon which his distinct “ghostly” narrative is constructed. The chapter also points out two special features of Chen’s trilogy—his nightmarish portrayal of home and body-focused writing—and that the three novels together demonstrate his unrelenting pursuit of freedom through his protagonists.