The First Intimate Contact
| Author | Tsai Jhi-hsin (蔡智恆) |
|---|---|
| Language | Chinese |
Publication date | 1998 |
| Publication place | Taiwan |
The First Intimate Contact (traditional Chinese: 第一次的親密接觸; simplified Chinese: 第一次的亲密接触; pinyin: Dì yī cì de qīn mì jiē chǔ) is a 1998 novel by Taiwanese writer Tsai Jhi-heng (蔡智恆, with pen name 痞子蔡 and userID jht). It had also been adapted into a movie.[1]
Background
The First Intimate Contact was originally a work of online literature published in installments on a bulletin board system and was later released in print.[2]: 19
Plot summary
The First Intimate Contact tells the story of as young man who finds love through the Internet, the love interest dies to a fatal disease.[2]: 19
The protagonist (who shares the same name as the author) meets and falls in love with a girl, FlyNDance, on the Internet. They eventually meet up in real life and become a couple, going out by day and chatting online by night. After some time together, however, FlyNDance is diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (erroneously translated as erysipelas in the English translation), which symbolically causes a butterfly-shaped rash to appear on her face. The disease proves to be fatal and the novel ends with the protagonist finding and reading a letter FlyNDance had written for him before she died.
Influence
The romance story helped establish a model of publishing online to develop popularity in order to get a literary work published in print and adapted to other media.[2]: 25
The First Intimate Contact inspired other works of online literature, including Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu by Hao Qun (Murong Xuecun).[2]: 23
Soon after the complete novel was released online, an anonymous Singaporean language localization was written in English and circulated around the Internet under the name Dolce Vita. This version is considerably shorter than the original and takes place in Singapore instead of Taiwan.
References
- ^ "Flyin' Dance". IMDb. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
- ^ a b c d Han, Rongbin (2026). Make China Great Again: Online Alt-History Fiction and Popular Authoritarianism. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-22054-5.
External links