Posted 2018/3/25
"Don't ask me where I came from; don't ask me where I am going…" this is a song written by San Mao. Just like the lyrics in the song, San Mao came into this world without much ado and left quietly.
For San Mao, life was like tasting an olive - sour and a little bit sweet.
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Even as a child, San Mao was sensitive and eccentric. In school, her classmates and teachers did not accept her very well, and in her second year of middle school, she discontinued her studies and learned how to play the piano and draw pictures.
Once, when San heard a Spanish classical guitar record, she decided that Spain was the place where she was longing for, with its small houses, donkeys, and vast vineyards. Hence she left her home and took two years of advanced courses in Spain.
After her time in Spain, followed by trips to Germany and the United States of America, San Mao returned to China's Taiwan Province. However, before she could even get resettled in her hometown, she experienced a heavy loss: her lover died, prompting San to start another global trek.
This time, the destination was the Sahara Desert (in North Africa), which San had read about in a magazine. She described the reason for starting a new life in the desert as "an unexplained nostalgia."
Upon San Mao's arrival in the Sahara Desert in 1973, she met her husband, He Xi. She enjoyed a happy life mentally to some extent though most people would view the couple's living condition as harsh and unbearable. During that time San Mao wrote many travelogues and novels, which were widely popular. Some of her novels include Sahara Story and The Story of the Weeping Camel..jpg)
However, fate was cruel to San Mao again. He Xi died in a diving accident in 1979, causing San Mao to end her stay in the desert and return back to Taiwan.
In the next several years, San enjoyed a quiet and peaceful life; or so it seemed. She traveled to South America, taught literature, gave lectures, and wrote books and plays. It seemed that San was having a common but productive life. However, on the morning of January 4, 1991, San committed suicide at the age of 48. Her death shocked the society, as no one knew why she chose to leave.
San Mao was such a woman, who bravely spanned the trials of a long journey, as well as the tumultuous human society, until she could no longer bear the bitter olive taste.
