Eccentric writer-critic Li Ao (李敖), who has laid low after losing the 2000 presidential campaign, stunned the nation yesterday by launching an erotic novel to celebrate his 66-year birthday.
Lee said jokingly that emotional lows arising from his failed electoral bid had led him to shun the limelight in the last 11 months.
The book titled "Shangsan, Shangsan, Love" (上 山, 上 山, 愛) was first published in 1984 as a serial for a Chinese-language magazine but was banned for its "instigating" contents, Lee told a news conference.
The title refers to the names of the mother and daughter characters, who both fall in love with the male protagonist, 30 years apart.
"The virtuous may find the publication edifying while the lustful may judge it obscene," he wrote in the first page to dismiss any attempt to categorize his latest book as pornographic.
Asked why he did not complete the volume years earlier, he quipped, "I preferred making than writing about love when young."
Li is famous for his pugnacious criticism of the political establishment during the martial law era.
The bold practice caused him to serve five years and eight months in prison on sedition charges, and most of his books were banned on grounds they contained materials "harmful to the government."
"It took me more than 40 days to finish the novel whose publication will mark a great feat in the history of Chinese literature," he said with his hallmark pompousness.
Celebrity friends including former foreign minister Jason Hu (
Since the end of the martial rule, Li has continued to lambaste politicians with his acid tongue on TV. He criticized former president Lee Teng-hui (
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