| Local Poets |
Zheng, Chouyu
Born in 1933 in China, Zheng came to Taiwan at a very young age. In Taiwan, he grew up at Hsinchu, graduated from National Chung Hsing University, and once worked for Keelung Harbor. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and had later taught at Yale University. His poetry collections include On The Dreamland, The Female Slave Outside the Window, Legacy, The Traveler, Snow’s Possibilities, Embroidered Songs, A Lonely Man Sits Down and Watches Flowers……etc. His lyrics have long been known for their unique rhythm, imagery, and romantic spirit, all of which have exerted a profound influence on modern poetry in Taiwan.
Yang, Mu
Born in Hualien, Taiwan in 1940, Yang started to write poems in early teens. After graduating from Tunghai University, he went abroad to attend MFA in Creative Writing at University of Iowa and later proceeded to pursue PhD in Comparative Literature at University of California--Berkeley. He was a professor of Comparative Poetics at University of Washington-Seattle, and the founding Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at National Dong Hwa University in Hualien, his hometown. As an internationally well-known scholar of Book of Songs, he has published 11 collections of poetry, and more than 30 books of drama, essays, criticism, and translation works among which are Chinese translation of Shakespeare’s Tempest and selected poems by W. B. Yeats. His works has been translated into Japanese, Korean, English, French, German, Dutch, and Swedish.
Zhou, Meng-Die
Born in Henan province of China in 1921, Zhou attended Wanxi Teacher’s Training High School. He joined the Youth Army in 1947 and came to Taiwan the next year. In 1956, he left the army and tried his career as a shopkeeper, elementary school teacher, graveyard keeper……etc. From 1959 to 1980 he had kept a bookstall in Taipei, but closed it due to health problem. He was a member of Blue Star Poetry Club, and the winner of the first National Literature and Arts Award. His poetry collections poetry include Solitude, a Kingdom, R-incarnation Herb, Thirteen White Chrysanthemums, and Dating.
Guan Guan
Born in Shandong province of China, Guan Guan came to Taiwan with the army in 1949. He was initiated into literature by reading Chinese Poems of 1000 Masters when he was still a young child. He started to write poetry in adolescence with unremitting confidence. Joining his poet friends in the army, he read widely poems by various famous poets, East and West. He is currently the president of Genesis Poetry Club. He often published his poems on the literary magazines such as The Blue Stars Poetry Quarterly, Genesis, and Modern Poetry.
Rongzi
Born in Jiansu province of China, Rongzi is the most prolific and famous woman poet in Taiwan. She also wrote essays and children’s literature. Among her more than 20 volumes of poetry collections are Blue Bird, Vannelisa Sequence, This Stop Does not Bring Us to Myth, All Trees Sing and Luo Men and Rong Zi’s Short Lyrics; essays include Sounds of Thousand Springs and Notes on Traveling in Europe, and a volume of children’s literature Fairytale Cities. In 1955, she married Luo Men and helped him edit The Blue Stars Poetry Quarterly. The couple is known as “the Brownings of Chinese Modern Poetry.” She was granted an honorary Master degree of Humanities by ICA and an honorary doctorate of literature by World Academy of Arts and Culture, and also won National Literature and Arts Award, International Women Literature Award, and Poet Laureate Award granted by World Congress of Poets.
Shangqin
Born in Sichuan province of China, Shangqin joined the army at the age of 16 and started to collect all kinds of folklore on his way marching through the southwest China. After coming to Taiwan, he left the army and tried his career as odd-job worker and gardener. He was also the editor of China Times Weekly. In his early years, his poems were mostly published on Modern Poetry; then he joined the Modernist founded by Ji Xian as well as Genesis Poetry Club, and became one of the major poets in 50s and 60s, recognized especially for his highly imaginative prose poems. He was invited to the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Although he wrote no more than 200 poems and only published 5 volumes of poetry including Dreams or Dawns and Thinking by Feet, due to the originality of his prose poems, he was thrice elected by critics to the list of ten major contemporary Chinese poets in 1977, 1982 and 2005. His Dreams, Dawns and Else was also chosen to be the classic of Taiwan poetry in 1999. His works were translated into English, French, German and Swedish.
Zhang, Mo
Born in Anhui province of China. In 1949, he came to Taiwan and joined the navy. In 1954, he, Luo Fu, and Ya Xian founded the literary magazine Genesis. He has published 13 poetry collections including Zhang Mo’s Selected Poems, 6 volumes of poetry reviews including Notes on Taiwan Modern Poetry, and edited 22 anthologies of poetry including 300 New Poems. He also won Chungshan Award of Literature & Arts, the Chinese Fine Arts Medal and the third May Fourth Award in the editor category. Some of his poems were translated into many different languages.
Li, Kuixian
Li Kuixian was born in Danshui, Taipei in 1937. His poetry collections include Naked Roses, Eternal Domain, Prayers, Images of Twilight, and Tender Sense of Beauty, literary reviews include Critiques on Taipei Poets, Poetry as Protest, and Poetry of Recollections. Well-known for being the first Chinese translator of Rilke’s poetry and prose, his translation works include Kafka’s Trial, Rilke’s Selected Poems I II III, The Night in Prussia, Rilke’s Collected Letters, Selected German Poems, and Selected German Modern Poems etc. He won Lai He Literature Award (2001), National Cultural Award (2001), was honored as Poet of the Millennium by International Society of Poets(2001), and nominated as a candidate of Nobel Prize for Literature by Indian Poets Association.
Chen, Fangming
Born in Kaohsiung, Chen earned his BA of history from Fu Jen Catholic University, and MA of history from National Taiwan University. He later went to US to seek for PhD degree at University of Washington -- Seattle. He was one of the founders of Association of Taiwan Literature Studies in US, and also the editor-in-chief of Taiwan Culture published in LA. In mid-nineties, He was the director of DPP’s Department of Propaganda, and is currently the professor and director of the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature at National Chengchi University. Besides being an accomplished poet, he is recognized as a major critic and literary historian in Taiwan. His publications include prose collections, The Map in My Palm and The Goal of Dreams, and many academic research works. He was recently granted National Literature and Arts Award.
Liao, Xian-Hao
Born in Taiwan, Liao earned his bachelor and master degrees from National Taiwan University and a doctorate of literature from Stanford University. He is currently the secretary-general and professor of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University. When serving as Director of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs in Taipei a few years ago, he helped enlarged the scale of the Taipei International Poetry Festival. His areas of academic expertise include comparative poetics, English and American modern poetry, post-modern fiction, contemporary literature and culture theory, and Taiwan modern literature.
Chen, Yizhi
Born in Hualien in 1953, Chen had served as the editor-in- chief of the literary supplement of United Daily News for more than one decade. He is currently teaching in the department of Chinese literature at National Taiwan Normal University. He has published more than 10 volumes of poetry, essays, and academic research. His latest poetry collection Boundary was just published this May. He won the China Times Literary Award, the Best Book Award of United Daily News, Golden Tripod Award for editor, Chungshan Literature & Arts Award, and Taiwan Poet Award. His selected poems are translated into English published as The Mysterious Hualien and into Japanese as《服のなかに住んでいる女》.
Jian, Zhengzhen
Born in Taipei in 1950, Jian earned his doctorate degree in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a professor and chair in Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in Chung Hsing University, and also the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Genesis. He is now the Dean of College of Humanities and Social Science at Asia University. His Poetry collections include After Seasons, Gathering between the Lines, Firecrackers’ Anger, The Smell of History, and Recollections; his literary critiques include Reader in the Blanks, The Space of Language and Literature, Instant Ecstasy of Poetry, The Poetic Mind and Poetics, and Poetics of Exile. He was also the executive editor of Contemporary Literary Criticism in Taiwan: Literary Theory and Selected Poems of New Generation Poets, and co-edited the New Generation Poets with Lin Yao-De and Genesis Literary Reviews: 40th Anniversary issue with Ya Xian. The awards he received include Poetry Award granted by Chinese Literature and Art Association, Poetry Award of Genesis 35th Anniversary, Doctoral Dissertation Award, and Golden Tripod Award.
Bai, Ling
Born in Taipei in 1951, Bai Ling acquired a Master degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, USA and is currently associate professor at National Taipei University of Technology. He also serves in the editorial board of “The Best Poems of the Year in Taiwan,” and is the consultant of the Cardinal Tien Writing Workshop. He started Sound and Light of Poetry and is the chief editor of literary magazines Grass Roots and Taiwan Poetics Quarterly. He was granted Narrative Poetry Award by China Times, Liang Shi-Qiu Literary Award, Chungshan Literature & Arts Award, and National Award for Arts. His poetry collections include Never a Cloud Lives by Boundary, Selected Poems of Bai Ling, Between Love and Death, and poetry criticism include The Birth of a Poem, The Lure of a Poem, The Ways of Playing with a Poem, and Fireworks and Fountain. He also published 2 volumes of poems for young readers and 3 essay collections.
His website:http://www.cc.ntut.edu.tw/~thchuang/index2.htm
Yang, Ze
Born at Chiayi in Taiwan in1955 , Yang earned his bachelor and master degree from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University, and a doctorate of East Asian Studies from Princeton University. He taught at Brown University, National Taiwan University of Arts, and National Dong Hwa University, and has served as the editor-in-chief of the literary supplement of China Times for over twodecades. His poetry collections include The Birth of Rose School, As If in th e City of Patriarchs, and No Life Is Worth Living.
Luo, Zhicheng
Born in Taiwan, Luo earned a BA in Philosophy from National Taiwan University and later pursued graduate study in Literature at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was once the editor and columnist of the literary supplement of China Times, the assistant editor in chief of China Times Express, the publisher of TO’ GO travel magazine, the director and producer of a radio station, a TV producer, and the Director of the Information Bureau of Taipei City Government. His 11 poetry collection include Picture Book, Book of Light, Book of Inclination, A Book without Refined Language, Book for Bobo, Black Mounted with Gold, My Study in the Dream, and My Dream Lover etc, essay and criticism include The M Lake, Carboniferous, Etudes from Subtropical Zone, The Beginning of Civilization, A Memorandum of Southern Royal Court, and The Blue Eon, and travel notes include Sand in the Sands in the Far Far South and Spring Poetry Festival. He received twice The China Times Literary Award, and also the Best poem of the Year Award.
Wu, Sheng
Born in a small village in Taiwan in 1944, Wu started to write poems in his early teens, and in his high school years he wrote prolifically and published his works on the well-know magazines such as Wenxing Magazine, The Blue Stars Poetry Quarterly, and The Wild Wind. He used to be the chief editor of the school magazine South Wind and also the founder of the school paper Pingtung Vocational School Biweekly. Recognized as the representative farmer-poet of Taiwan, he was the recipient of Chinese Modern Poetry Award. His essay collections include A Female Farmer, In Front of a Grocery Store, No Regrets, Let’s Forget, and Every Poem has a Story, and his poetry collections include Impressions of My Hometown and Let’s Talk to Kids.
Jiao, Tong
Born in Kaohsiung in 1956, he once majored in drama and had directed a stage-play performed in Taipei. Currently teaching as associate professor at National Central University, he is also the founder of Fish & Fish Publishing Company, publisher of the magazine Fine Dinning, and president of the Association of Taiwanese Dinning Culture. His poetry collections include Ferns, Recipe of Complete Erection, and The Specimen of My Youth, essays include Meeting with a Caterpillar, The Last Round Dance Hall, At the World’s Boundary, Me and My Room, and Guzzle along the Way, a tale for children The Crow/Butterfly Aqing’s Trip, and more than 20 volumes of literary reviews which include Taiwan Drama in the Early Post- War Period, and Bring Taiwan Literary Movements to the Street: 1977~2000. Many of his poems were translated into English, Japanese, and French. He is also the editor of many anthologies such as The Best Poems of the year, The Best short Stories of the Year, the Best Prose of the Year and so on.
Chen, Yuhong
Born in Kaohsiung, Chen graduated from the Department of English at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. After years of sojourn in Vancouver, she now has settled down in Taipei. Her works include poetry collections The Bewitched, The Hidden Indexes, Rivers Flowing Deep into Your Veins, Sea, at Bottom, and About Poetry. She also published a Chinese translation of La Citadelle des Neiges. She won the Annual Poetry Award in 2004 and Literature and Arts Medal of Chinese Association of Literature and Arts in 2007. Her poems were also selected into Chiuko’s anthology 30 Major Poets of Taiwan in the Past Three Decades in 2008.
Liu, Kexiang
As a poet, a novelist and a nature observer, in his teens Liu dreamt of playing in a national champion baseball team and an elementary school teacher. Growing up, he devoted himself to writing. A junior at college, he took his internship in United Daily News and thus started his nearly 30 years of editing literary supplement for UDN and later for China Times. Liu focused on nature writing about birds, railways, fauna and flora in his early life. Lately, he has shifted his focus on local landscapes and customs, exploration of mountain pathways, edible wild vegetables and fruits, and is writing animal fictions. He is currently the writer-in-residence at national Dong Hwa University.
Chen, Kehua
Born in Hualien, Chen identifies himself as a male with ancestral home in Canton. He is a poet, a lyric composer, a singer, a photographer, a movie reviewer, an illustrator and a painter. Graduated from School of Medicine in Taipei Medical University and once a post-doctorate of Harvard Medical School, Chen is currently an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and an associate professor of ophthalmology at National Yang-ming University. He also holds a concurrent post as a researcher in National Health Research Institute. His poems and lyric songs have won several major literary awards. A prolific author, he has published more than 30 volumes of poetry collection (accompanied with his own illustrations), prose, film reviews, plays, novels, and photography. Chen also released his personal album Gaze. He’s held several personal photographic exhibitions since 2005 and taught “Medicine and Humanities” in medical schools all over Taiwan. His works have been adopted into verse play and performed on stage. He was invited to compose lyrics for many plays and symphonies as well. Occasionally, he also performed on stage and in TV plays.
Xu, Hueizhi
Born in 1966 at Taoyuan, Xu graduated from Department of Chemical Engineering in National Taipei University of Technology. He won many literary awards and the Golden Tripod Award for Magazine Editorship. Once an executive editor in Liberty Times and a general editor in UNITAS Publishing Co, Xu is now running his own publishing house. His works include children’s book The Blinking Words from the Stars; prose collections, The Interior, and A Remembrance of Sorrow. In addition to children’s book and prose, he is prolific in poetry writing and has published collections such as Dawn against the Skyline, When a Whale Longs for the Ocean, Carnal Impresses, and Poetry as Ananda to This World and so on. Besides, his poetry collection, Book of Reincarnation, has been translated into English, and he is the co-author of Modern Poetry in Taiwan II, which has been translated into Japanese. He also co-edited Chinese-English poetry collection Sailing for Formosa: Poetic Taiwan with Michelle Yeh and Nils G. D. Malmqvist.
Xiaoxiao
Born in Zhanghua, Taiwan, Xiaoxiao acquired his Bachelor Degree in Chinese at National Changhua Normal University and Master Degree at National Taiwan Normal University. He is currently teaching as associate professor in Chinese Department at Mingdao University. Xiaoxiao has devoted all his life to the writing of poetry and prose, the promotion of modern poetry and the inquiries of poetics. In 1979, he worked with Zhang Hanliang, a professor at National Taiwan University, to compile Taiwan’s first series of modern poetry, An Introduction to Modern Poetry (five volumes). Up to now, he has written and compiled 105 volumes of books including the first primer of modern poetry in Taiwan, Start With Poetry in Your Teens (1989), the first esthetical discourse on modern poetry in Taiwan, Esthetics of Modern Poetry (2004), and the first discourse on regional poetry, The Philosophy of Homeland and Poetry in Zhanghua (2007).
Xiangyang
Born in Nantou, Xiangyang got his Ph. D. in Journalism from National Chengchi University, and is currently associate professor and the director of the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Culture in National Taipei University of Education. He once compiled the selected poems for the series, Taiwanese Literary Classics for Young Readers published by National Institute of Compilation and Translation. He also compiled 4 volumes of novels and 3 volumes of prose for the series The Classics of Taiwanese Literature in the 20th Century for UNITAS Publishing Co. His poetry collection Chaos won him the Taiwanese Literature Award in the category of poetry in 2007. For more information, visit his website “Xiang-yang’s Workshop”:tea.ntue.edu.tw/~xiangyang/。
Hueng Hueng
A poet and a director of theatre and motion picture, he is winner of the first prize in poetry granted by China Times, winner of fiction award granted by United Daily News and China Times. His poetry collections include Things Unconcerned with Me, A Journey in memory of the Last One, Music in the Dark and Local-made Bombs. Besides poetry, he also writes prose, novel, plays, and drama reviews. His prose collections include Playgrounds Bygone and Walking House and Eatable Boat. He also served as the editor-in-chief of well-received magazines, Performing Arts Review, Modern Poetry, and Poetry Now, and the series, Classics of Contemporary Drama in Translation. As a director, his cinema works include The Love of Three Oranges, The Human Comedy, A Garden in the Sky and The Wall Passer. His documentaries are Bohemians in Taipei and Xia-xia’s Contact Book etc.
Yin Ling
A Cantonese born in Vietnam, Yin got her Bachelor Degree in Literature from Saigon Liberal Arts University. She earned her MA as well as Ph.D. in Chinese Literature both at National Taiwan University. She received another Ph.D. in Literature from Université Paris 7. She is currently a full-time professor at Tamkang University. A winner of Chungxing Literature Medal, her poetry collections include When Night Blooms like Flowers. She also wrote a monograph, Literary Sociology. Besides creative writing, she translated into Chinese French novel Zazie dans le metro and French poems; in addition, she also translated Vietnamese short fictions and poems into Chinese.
Yan, Ailin
Born in 1968, Yan is from Tainan County. She earned a BA in History at Fu Jen Catholic University, and is currently a MFA student in Creative Writing at National Taipei University of Education. In addition to being a poet representing Taiwan in Poetry Review a Korean literary quarterly, Yan also functions as referee for major literary awards in Taiwan, planner of literary and art events, and is often invited to lecture on poetry to college students. She has won quite a few awards including Taipei Literature Award, winner of the best poem in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Genesis, poetry award granted by Council of Cultural Affairs, winner of National Best Poet Award, and Outstanding Young Author of the Year Award etc. Her poetry collections include Feminine Writing on Corporal Me, Manga Nose, Playing Games with the Sky, Let’s Float Poetry in the Air, Her Otherness and When Lin Family Mansion and Garden Meets Poetry and Photography. Her other publication include prose, manga reviews, notebooks and poetry reading guide.
Yang, Jiaxian
Born in 1978, a Gemini from Kaohsiung, Yang got her MA in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at National Taiwan University. She once taught as lecturer at National Taiwan University and Shih Hsin University. Her poetry collections include Breath-halting Civilization, Time Overflowing in Your Voice and prose collections Sea Wind, Bush Fire and Flowers, Clouds Assonance. She also compiles Selected Bildungsroman in Taiwan. Her third prose collection will soon be published.
Zijuan
Born in 1968 in Taipei, she is from Hengchun Township in Pingtung. She once worked at various Print-houses, later for ViVi magazine, and currently at her father’s company, which manufactures filter cartridges and masks. Her award-winning records include Outstanding Young Poet Award 2002 and the Golden Bell Award 2002—the best radio play of the year. She has her blogs at Sina called “Nest of Zi-juan” and at PoemLife “Dancing with My Shadow.” She is now the chief editor of Chienkun poetry magazine.
Moyan( Teng Mo-yan• Ji-nao)
Coming from Ami tribe in Hualien, Mo-yan is an instructor of tribal language at indigenous village schools. Apart from being a teacher, Mo-yan is a screenwriter, a director of song and dance drama, a poet and a creative singer who composes his own songs. He was called “Mo-yan” to reflect that in his performance speech is supplanted by his singing. He was invited to perform in the Pacific Poetry Festival 2007~2009 and Taipei Poetry Festival 2006—to write and direct the song and dance drama. Being a major performer in Festival of Austronesian Cultures in Taitung since 2005, he won the first prize of Austronesian song Composition in 2006 and later became the spokesman of the event He is also the theme song composer and spokesman of 2009 Makapahay Festival in Taitung and has been invited to perform annually since 2005.
Mo Naneng
Born of a Paiwan tribe in Taitung County, Mo is called “A-neng” (meaning “capable”) by his bosom friends, for Mo, due to poverty, was a binder, a deliveryman, a quarry worker and so on. Living on odd labor jobs, his life becomes a drama filled with tears and blood: scenes of being bullied and defrauded. With the same work title, aborigines are to be paid less but to run higher risks of their lives…. Fatigue plus chronic malnutrition, Mo has become more and more poor-sighted since he was 20. The colorful world became dimmer and dimmer until he was totally left in the dark. After 2-year career training, Mo now lives by massage. Having experienced the painful oppression as other aborigines, Mo appeals to his people to stand up and chant, recollect intimacy with Mother Nature, and experience the inner power of their homeland. All these have become Mo’s creative elements. His unfeigned words, coming from the exuberant power of Nature, startle and move many thirsty souls.
Adaw Palaf
A Tafalong male from Ami and born in 1949, he graduated from National Taiwan University Night program, majoring in Foreign Languages and Literatures. He is a senior dancer in Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe, an art director in A-sang Troupe and a commander in Chaos Troupe. His works mainly express the inner cultural spirits of his people through aboriginal songs and dances inherited from rituals. They also convey the ideas that falling victim to capitalism and being consumed by tourism, their traditional culture, like rituals, is diminishing. Through his dramas, Adaw Palaf retraces myths, reconstructing the subjectivity of aborigines.
Liao, Zhiyun Blog: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/cyveronica
Born some time in-between spring and summer in Taipei, Liao perceives this world with her Gemini perspective. She graduated from Nation Taiwan University with double majors in Public Health and Psychology. Once a chief editor of magazines and series, now she is a writer gathering and compiling materials. She writes poetry, essays, and stories. In the Name of Beauty is her poetry collection. For further information.
Luo, Ren-ling
Luo earned her MA in Literature at National Taiwan Normal University. She was a teacher, a journalist, a chief editor of literary supplement, and a lecturer at colleges. Her poetry collections include Codes and Flying against Light. Imprints of Light is her prose collection. Her poetry reviews are collected in The Aesthetics of Nature in Modern Poetry of Taiwan. She is a winner of Liang Shih-shiu Literary Award in prose and the first prize winner of National Taiwan Normal University Literary Award in poetry, etc. Her works have been collected in the series, Masterpieces of Chinese Modern Literature, Selected Modern Poetry by Women Poets in Taiwan, Selected 300 Free Verses, The Best Poems of the Year and The Best Prose of the Year, etc.
Xu, Rongzhe
Born in Tainan, Xu graduated from MFA in Creative Writing at National Dong Hwa University after acquiring a Master degree in Engineering from National Taiwan University. Once an executive editor at UNITAS Publishing Co., he is currently the director of creative writing workshop sponsored by Cardinal Tien Youth Writing Association. He won various literary prizes granted by China Times, United Daily News, and Ministry of Education, etc. His publication include novels, Labyrinth, Fables, and A Gifted Youth’s Internet Life, composition guidebook, Sherlock Holmes’s Clues: Handbook of Composition, and screenplay Bikes on the Road. Xu has been honored “the best story-teller of 70’s.” One of his well-known maxims goes “Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is dead, and so is Italo Calvino, but I’m still vigorously alive!” His latest novel, The Drifting Lake, is the first fiction writing on trauma caused by Taiwan’s 921 earthquake.
