Yu Kwang-chung, also romanised as Yu Guangzhong (; 21 October 1928 – 14 December 2017) was a

Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, ...

writer, poet, educator and critic.

Life

Yu was born in 1928 in

Nanking Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

to Yu Chaoying and Sun Xiujun, but fled with his family during the Japanese invasion. After returning to Nanjing many years later, he again was forced to flee due to the Communist victory in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. Yu and his family fled to Taiwan via

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

in 1950 with the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

-led Government. Yu entered the

University of Nanking The University of Nanking, known in Chinese as Jinling University (金陵大学, Jinling being the ancient name of Nanking) was a private university in Nanjing, China sponsored by American churches. Founded in 1888, it effectively become defunct i ...

for English Major in 1947, and then transferred to Amoy University. He enrolled at

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

and was one of the first students to graduate with a degree in foreign languages. He held a master of fine arts degree from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. After graduation, he began his career as a university teacher in 1956. Yu became a reader within the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at

The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

in 1974. He joined the faculty of

National Sun Yat-sen University National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU; ) is a public research-intensive university renowned as an official think tank scholars' community, located in Sizihwan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. NSYSU is listed as one of six national research universities, ...

in 1985 as dean of arts. He taught in the United States, including at

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

. He was awarded a National Award for Arts in 1989 and a National Cultural Award in 2014. Yu died on 14 December 2017 from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

, at

Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital (), also known as Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, is a teaching hospital in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It was established on 16 June 1957 to provide clinical training, heal ...

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

. He was married to Fan Wo-tsun from 1956 until his death.

Works

He published 17 poetry collections and 12 prose collections. Yu's poetry since the 1970s had focused on the theme of longing for China felt by many Mainland Chinese soldiers and Nationalist Government workers who fled to Taiwan after the

. Yu's works often focused on four fundamental aspects of literature; namely poetry, prose, translation, and commentary. Among writers using Chinese, Yu Kwang-chung became well-received to readers by showing innovative humour in his essays, exhibiting wit in his appreciations, and evincing his understanding of humanistic culture in his poetry. A former professor at the Chinese language and literature faculty at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

, Yu was internationally acclaimed for his command of traditional Chinese as well as modern literature. Besides his proficiency in the English language, for which he had been appointed professor at departments of English in Taiwan and the US, Yu was also an eager learner of languages, especially European ones. He spoke French, German, Spanish, and Italian, languages which he sometimes cited in his Chinese essays when juxtaposing the Chinese and Western cultures. He also learned Russian. He targeted the

Taiwanese literature movement The Taiwanese literature movement (also Taiwan literature movement, Nativist literature movement) refers to the effort of authors, poets, dramatists, musicians, and publishers in Taiwan to establish recognition of a distinctly Taiwanese body of ...

in an August 1977 publication titled "The Wolf Is Coming", comparing nativist writings to "worker-peasant-soldier arts and literature" and linking them with

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

. Coupled with a editorial that appeared in the ''

Central Daily News The ''Central Daily News'' was the official newspaper of the Kuomintang and is one of the world's oldest Chinese-language newspapers, having been in circulation since 1928. The Kuomintang made the decision to temporarily cease publication of th ...

'', Yu's piece engendered heavy criticism of nativist literature that lasted until January 1978.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Kwang-chung 1928 births 2017 deaths National Sun Yat-sen University faculty Taiwanese poets Republic of China poets Writers from Nanjing National Taiwan University alumni University of Iowa alumni Poets from Jiangsu Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star Chinese Civil War refugees Taiwanese people from Jiangsu Deaths from pneumonia in Taiwan Chinese University of Hong Kong faculty Gettysburg College faculty

Life

Works

See also

References