Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, No. 46: Special Issue on Contemporary Poetry from Taiwan

This issue contains the verse of twenty-four poets. From 1924, when Hsieh Chun-mu first published four “Poems in Imitation,” the development of new poetry in Taiwan has a history of almost one hundred years. The roots of new poetry in Taiwan with its “twin flower bulbs,” to use the phrase coined by Chen Chien-wu, has now bloomed and borne fruit. It manifests diversified themes, and places great stress on both artistic expression and social concern. It recognizes globalization as the major trend of the times, and maintains a dynamic balance between nativist consciousness and the ensibilities of the Chinese cultural diaspora. Taiwan literature and its new poetry written in Chinese should have a place in the Chinese world community,as well as in the history of world literature. Limited by the space allowed for the journal, we could only select works related to “local” and “quotidian” writing. Yet we hope to observe through these works the manner in which the unique charm and gracefulness of contemporary poetry from Taiwan has blossomed in the garden of world literature.

• Kuo-ch'ing Tu, Editor

  Kuo-ch'ing Tu, born in Taichung, Taiwan. His research interests include Chinese literature, Chinese poetics and literary theories, comparative literature East and West, and world literatures of Chinese (Shi-Hua wenxue). He is the author of numerous books of poetry in Chinese, as well as translator of English, Japanese, and French works into Chinese.

• Terence Russell, Editor

  Terence Russell is Senior Scholar in the Asian Studies Center at the University of Manitoba. His research interest is in contemporary literature in Chinese, especially the literature of Taiwan’s Indigenous people. His publications include studies of Adaw Palaf, Auvini Kadresengan, and Syaman Rapongan. Dr. Russell has a strong interest in translation and translation theory, and has been a regular contributor to Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series. He was the guest editor of Issue 24 on Taiwan Indigenous myths and oral literature, and now serves as co-editor for the journal. His literary translations include novels by award-winning Chinese author Zhang Wei: September’s Fable (2007) and Seven Kinds of Mushrooms (2009); and most recently, The Spirit of Jade Mountain, by Husluman Vava (forthcoming).

• Horng Shuling, Author

  Horng Shuling was born in 1962 in Taipei City. She has a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Chinese Literature of National Taiwan University (NTU) and is currently a professor in the Chinese Literature Department of NTU.

• John Balcom, Translator

  John Balcom teaches at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His most recent translation is My Village: Selected Poems, 1972–2014 by Wu Sheng, published by Zephyr Press.

• Chang Fen-ling, Translator

  Chang Fen-ling received her B.A. in English from National Taiwan Normal University. A prolific literary critic and award-winning translator, she has translated into Chinese over thirty volumes of poetry with her husband Chen Li. She has also translated two books of Chen Li's poems into English, Intimate Letters: Selected Poems of Chen Li and The Edge of the Island.

• Yingtsih Hwang, Translator

  Yingtsih Hwang is an independent scholar and translator based in Monterey.

• Brian Skerratt, Translator

  Brian Skerratt is an assistant professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature and International Cultural Studies at National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His research and teaching focus on modern and contemporary poetry in Chinese, comparative poetics, and ecopoetics. Before joining Chung Hsing, he taught at the Centre for China Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at National Chengchi University and a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University with a specialization in modern and contemporary poetry in Chinese. His publications include articles such as “Born Orphans of the Earth: Pastoral Utopia in Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry,”“Hsia Yü Buys a Computer” and “Zhu Guangqian and the Rhythm of New Poetry.” His translations of Macanese writer Un Sio San's poetry, Naked Picnic, are published by CUHK Press.

• Terence Russell, Translator

  Terence Russell is Senior Scholar in the Asian Studies Center at the University of Manitoba. His research interest is in contemporary literature in Chinese, especially the literature of Taiwan’s Indigenous people. His publications include studies of Adaw Palaf, Auvini Kadresengan, and Syaman Rapongan. Dr. Russell has a strong interest in translation and translation theory, and has been a regular contributor to Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series. He was the guest editor of Issue 24 on Taiwan Indigenous myths and oral literature, and now serves as co-editor for the journal. His literary translations include novels by award-winning Chinese author Zhang Wei: September’s Fable (2007) and Seven Kinds of Mushrooms (2009); and most recently, The Spirit of Jade Mountain, by Husluman Vava (forthcoming).