Major Events in the Life of Sanmao

I recently read Sanmao's Crying Camels. Searching for information about Sanmao and her works in English, I found very little. There was a reference to Sanmao speaking in support of the existences of UFOs. (There is a very short description of a UFO appearance in the book Crying Camels.) I did find one essay in English, called Foreign Characters in San Mao's Short Stories, which was worth reading . This essay, like other references I have seen in English, refer to her writing as "autobiographical fiction" or "travel fiction." Personally, I would not attempt to classify her writing because I do not know how much is true and how much is fiction. When talking to a Chinese coworker about Sanmao, he even doubted that Sanmao's husband Jose (Hexi) existed. This is definitely an overreaction, the kind of cynicism of someone afraid of looking overly credulous.

Instead of writing a review of Crying Camels, which is the third and best book by Sanmao that I have read, I decided to translate a timeline of her life. This timeline is taken from an appendix in Sanmao's Crying Camels (哭泣的駱駝).

Major Events in Sanmao's Life

Original name: Chen Ping (陳平) [Note: In the introduction to Sahara Stories (撒哈拉的故事), Sanmao's father writes that her given name was Chen Maoping (陳懋平), but the middle character was dropped because Sanmao did not care for it.]
From Zhejiang Dinghai. Born March 26, 1943.
Sanmao's love of reading was evident in her early childhood. At five and a half years old she read Hong Lou Meng (A Dream of Red Mansions). By middle school, she had exhaustively read almost all the great works of world literature available on the market.
In her second year of middle school, she discontinued schooling, and under her parents' tutelage, she established a firm base in the subjects of poetry, the Chinese classics, and English. She studied painting under the teaching of painters Gu Fusheng, and later Shao Youxuan.
In 1964 she received special permission from the founder of Chinese Culture University to audit classes in the philosophy department. She obtained outstanding grades for her class work.
In 1967, she again left school, and traveled to Spain, alone. In the following three years, she studied at Spain's Madrid University and German's Goethe Institute. Later, at America's Illinois University, she worked in the library of law. These experiences were greatly beneficial in her life and further language studies.
In 1970, she returned to Taiwan, and was employed by Zhang Qiyun to teach in Chinese Culture University's German department and philosophy department. After her fiancé died, in anguish, she left Taiwan once again, and went to Spain. She reunited with Jose, who had been in love with her for six years.
In 1973, she married Jose at a courthouse in the Spanish-controlled Sahara desert.
Her time in the desert stimulated her latent writing talent. Under the encouragement of Ping Xintao, editor in chief of the United Daily News, Sanmao began producing a stream of works, which were then collected in book form. Her first work, Sahara Stories, was published in May of 1976.
On September 30, 1979, Sanmao's husband, Jose, died in a diving accident. Sanmao returned to Taiwan under her parents' support.
In 1981, Sanmao decide to end her 14 years of wandering the globe and settle down in Taiwan.
In November of the same year, United Daily News sponsored Sanmao in half a year of traveling in South America. After returning to Taiwan, she wrote about her experiences in the book Qianshan-Wanshui Zou Pian (千山萬水走篇), and went on an island-wide lecture tour.
Sanmao then returned to Chinese Culture University, this time in the arts and literature department, teaching creative writing and essay composition. Her classes were well liked by students.
In 1984, Sanmao resigned due to health reasons, and focused on writing and lecturing.
In 1989, she returned to her native home in China for the first time, and found that she had many readers there. While in China, she fulfilled a long-term wish and met Zhang Leping, the author of the Sanmao comics.
In 1990, she completed her first movie script, Red Dust (滾滾紅塵). This was to be her last work.
Sanmao died in April of 1991 at 48 years old.

Note: Although her name is written as "San Mao" in much of the English writing about her, I prefer to use "Sanmao" so that it does not appear that her surname is "San." Note that this is the same nickname as Jackie Chan's opera school big brother, Sammo Hung (洪金寶). "Sammo" is the Cantonese pronunciation.

Related post: Review of Sanmao's Nao Xue Ji