Huang Zhen-nan: A Family of Bibliophiles and a Living Source of Taiwan's Cultural History

30-second overview: Huang Zhen-nan is a Taiwanese cultural historian and book collector, born in 1980 in Liujiao Township, Chiayi County. Together with his father, Huang Zhe-yong, he developed a complementary "father in the south, son in the north" book-collecting model. In 2009, he founded the "Huoshuilaifang" Facebook page, using a humorous tone to promote Taiwan history and old-book culture. His works include The Most Hilarious History of Taiwan and A Home of Books, and the media has called him the storyteller of Taiwan's cultural history scene.

A Family of Bibliophiles and Upbringing

Huang Zhen-nan was born in 1980 in Liujiao Township, Chiayi County. From a young age, he followed his father, Huang Zhe-yong (a researcher of folk literature and Chinese studies), on visits to used bookstores. His father came from a third-class poor household yet was passionate about book collecting—this devotion to the written word ran through the family. After graduating from university, Huang Zhen-nan worked in northern Taiwan while his father remained in the south, forming a "father in the south, son in the north" complementary model in which they separately collected Taiwanese literature, traditional literary works, and various historical books.¹

Huang Zhen-nan's interest in book collecting began with the wuxia novels of Wen Rui'an from the 1980s to 1990s, gradually expanding to include pure literature, Taiwanese historical materials, and publications from the Japanese colonial period. He graduated from the Department of Language Education at National Taichung University of Education and earned a master's degree from the Department of Taiwan Languages and Literature at National Taiwan Normal University. This academic background gave him the ability to identify editions and verify historical materials while amassing a large collection.

The Birth of "Huoshuilaifang"

In 2009, Huang Zhen-nan founded the blog and Facebook page "Huoshuilaifang," a name drawn from a line by the Song-dynasty poet Zhu Xi: "Because there is a living source at the head of the stream." With a humorous and engaging tone, he brought Taiwan history and old-book culture from academic circles into the view of general readers, making serious historical documents both entertaining and accessible.²

The page has accumulated considerable influence in Taiwan's cultural history community. Many online writers focused on Taiwan history have been inspired by his early posting style on PTT (Taiwan's largest online bulletin board). He combines a collector's eye with a storyteller's skill, giving every item in his collection a chance to be rediscovered.

Major Works

His breakout work, The Most Hilarious History of Taiwan, tells Taiwan's history in a relaxed style, drawing young readers into what was once considered a niche field of local history. In 2017, Huang Zhen-nan co-authored Refusing to Be Forgotten: Oral Memories of RCA Workers' Injuries with Tsai Hui-pin, a staff member at the National Museum of Taiwan History. The book records firsthand oral accounts from workers involved in the environmental pollution and occupational disease cases at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Taiwan, representing an extension of Huang's cultural-historical methodology into labor history and oral history.³

His subsequent publication, A Home of Books: My Father, Myself, and Sometimes My Mother, documents three generations of book collecting in his family—his father collected Taiwanese literature and Chinese classical texts, while his mother collected antiquities. Their tastes differed, yet together they formed a rare cultural portrait of a family.³

He also co-edited Reading Books to Know Taiwan with his father Huang Zhe-yong, and co-edited A New Bibliography of Traditional Chinese Literature in Taiwan with Professor Wu Fu-chu. His academic paper Taking Books to School: Traditional Taiwanese Primers represents a body of bibliographic work that stands alongside his collecting practice.

Collecting Focus and Philosophy

Huang Zhen-nan's collection spans Qing-dynasty primers, Japanese colonial–period newspapers and magazines, postwar literary journals, personal correspondence, Han poetry, and wuxia comics from the 1960s to the 1980s. Nishikawa Mitsuru, a Japanese colonial–period writer known for his meticulous attention to book design, is a particular focus—his limited-edition fine-bound books (including hand-colored special editions such as Picture Book Momotaro) are among Huang's most sought-after acquisitions. Nishikawa's book design holds a unique place in the history of Taiwanese book arts. Huang has also obtained handwritten notes by social activist Tsai Pei-huo, a recent and precious acquisition that brought him into close contact with the political currents of the Japanese colonial period. (The above collection details come from interview reports; for specifics, refer to Huang Zhen-nan's own account.)⁴

He maintains a policy of "sharing only, no lending," born from a personal experience of a borrowed book never being returned. Behind this principle is his view of collected books as historical objects: every artifact bears the life traces of ordinary people and the urban memory of Taiwan, and once damaged, it cannot be restored.

Cultural Significance

In today's fast-flowing information landscape, Huang Zhen-nan's contribution lies in "translation"—transforming dusty documents sleeping in private collections and libraries into stories that the general public can read. From a local perspective, he promotes Taiwan history in everyday language, giving serious historical research a broader point of contact.⁵

His family's book-collecting model also reflects the grassroots power of cultural preservation in Taiwan. Beyond academic institutions, there are people who, through personal passion and family tradition, have safeguarded these paper artifacts amid the wave of digitization.

References

Further Reading

• Huoshuilaifang — Huang Zhen-nan's page for sharing Taiwan history and old-book culture