After Passing Away

As real estate prices in Taiwan soar ever higher, it now takes up to three decades to secure one’s permanent home through loans averaging millions of Taiwanese dollars. Most structures are weary and old when such debts are finally paid off. Our protagonist has spent the majority of his adult and parental life working at the Yang family restaurant during the day, and sleeping in the store’s attic at night.

Yang San-eii has never owned a home, nor does he plan to join the debt game now. At the age of 50, he decides instead to construct one with his own energy and time, and opts for traditional Japanese-style carpentry that omits the need for nails.

In his mind, the Yang family house will stand tall for a century, as a sustainably sourced and eco-friendly structure. But during the decades-long construction, his family’s livelihood is solely dependent on his wife, who is propping up the restaurant alone. The Yangs and their daughters are now the focus of community gossip.

Chatter aside, the sorest point of stress is economical. With no end in sight, the project’s limbo status has led the two daughters to leave home for work and love. These structural changes, as well as other interpretations of belonging, challenge Yang’s sense of mission.

A man with a broken childhood, will Yang be able to complete his dream home and secure a future for his family? “After Passing Away” is an intimate study of what “family” and “home” mean to the wider Mandarin-speaking community.