Giddens Ko

Giddens Ko
200px Ko in 2008
Native name	柯景騰
Born	(1978-08-25) 25 August 1978 Changhua County, Taiwan
Pen name	Jiubadao (九把刀)
Occupation	writer and film director
Language	Chinese
Citizenship	Taiwanese
Education	Bachelor of Management Studies, Master of Social Science
Alma mater	National Chiao Tung University Tunghai University
Genres	horror, science fiction, romance
Notable works	You Are the Apple of My Eye, Café. Waiting. Love
Years active	1999–present
Website
www.giddens.tw/blog

Giddens Ko (simplified Chinese: 柯景腾; traditional Chinese: 柯景騰; pinyin: Kē Jǐngténg), is a Taiwanese writer and director born on 25 August 1978 in Changhua County, Taiwan. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Management from National Chiao Tung University and Master of Social Science from Tunghai University. Since he published his first book online, Ko has completed around 60 books, many of which have been adapted as films. He writes under the pseudonym of "Jiubadao" (九把刀), which means "nine knives".

Biography

Ko grew up as the second of three sons in Changhua, where his parents own a pharmacy. Ko discovered his love of writing when he penned a story as part of his university application. He started writing fiction in 1999, and posted most of his first works on the Internet. Ko struggled through the first five years of his writing career, before branching out into multiple genres, namely horror, science fiction, and romance. He writes 5000 words daily, and at his peak writing pace published one book per month for 14 consecutive months. This set of work helped Ko's popularity rise in Taiwan. Ko has compared himself favorably to Louis Cha, Gu Long, and Ni Kuang.

In 2008, Ko directed the film "LOVE", along with Vincent Fang, Chen Yi-xian and Huang Zijiao. In 2010, Ko directed the film "You Are the Apple of My Eye", based off his book The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years. In 2011, Ko adapted his "Killer" series into the film The Killer Who Never Kills. He produced a documentary focusing on Taiwan's animal shelters in 2012, titled Twelve Nights. In 2014, another of Ko's books was adapted into the film Café. Waiting. Love. The film adaptation of another of Ko's books, Kung Fu, was originally set to be released in 2014, but its release date was pushed back to 2015. In September 2015, Ko announced another book–to–film adaption, The Tenants Downstairs, was to be released in 2016.

In 2012, Ko notified Apple Inc. that some approved applications on the company's iOS platform were accessing pirated versions of his books. Apple initially refused to pull the apps, as the company was unsure about Ko's publisher having proper authorization to contact them. Ko traveled to Hong Kong to file a complaint in person before the matter was resolved with the removal of the apps. On 9 October 2012, Ko was chosen as one of "Ten Outstanding Young People of Taiwan" by the Junior Chamber International Taiwan.

In October 2014 it was reported that Beijing had ordered works by Ko removed from shelves. A few weeks previously, Ko had shaved his head to show solidarity for Occupy Central with Love and Peace, the organization that started the 2014 Hong Kong protests. In the same month, Ko admitted cheating his girlfriend of nine years, Hsiao-nei, with a television reporter. In early May 2015, Ko confirmed that the relationship with Hsiao-nei had ended.

Pen name

"Jiubadao" was originally a song written by Ko as a senior high school student. The song's title stuck as a nickname when a tutor spotted students passing notes signed by Jiubadao and asked who he was. Classmates revealed Jiubadao to be Ko and he used the nickname as a pseudonym after graduating college.

External links

• Giddens Ko at the Internet Movie Database