On December 14^th 2017, Chinese modern literature lovers woke up to one of the most heartbreaking news the literary world has witnessed in recent times. Poet/writer Yu Guangzhong (余光中) died at the age of 90, at Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-ho Memorial Hospital. Last year, Yu and his wife, Fan Wo-tsun (范我存), were both admitted to intensive care right before their 60^th ‘Diamond’ Anniversary. After they returned home, they celebrated their anniversary by donating to charity organizations.

This article is based on an interview with him in 1998.

The interview took off. On the other side of the phone, was the ‘Chair Professor’ Yu Guangzhong, the critic of the journal, the polemic writer of humor, ‘The Sage in Chinese Modern Poetry’, and the poet of The Sirius (天狼星), The White Jade Bitter Gourd (白玉苦瓜), and The Bodhisattva across the Sea (隔水觀音).

 “Out of the quarrel with others, we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves, we make poetry.” A quote from William Butler Yeats well describes the life of the Taiwanese writer, poet, educator, and critic. To Yu Guangzhong, “Prose is the identity of all writers; poetry is the ticket to art.”

Once, he strummed the strings of all nostalgic hearts through his soul-touching poem embraced by a gentle hum of melody composed by Yang Hsien (楊弦). In 1975, a folk song performance at Jhungshan Auditorium (中山堂) stroke the first chord of the era of singable modern poetry.

Nostalgia -Yu Guangzhong

When I was a child,
Nostalgia seemed a small stamp:
“Here am I
and there my mother.”

Then I was a grown-up,
Nostalgia became a traveling ticket:
“Here am I
And there my bride.”

During the later years
Nostalgia turned to be a graveyard:
“Here am I
And yonder my mother.”

And now at present
Nostalgia looms large to be a channel:
“Here am I
and yonder my Continent!”

(Translation: 杨钟琰)

Over half a century, Yu had never dropped his pen. Through all his writing, he conveyed one message: to keep the torch of Chinese literature alight. He worried that within the tug of war between westernization and localization, the culture legacy might sink in the streams of debate, arguments, and fight. He stressed that all wordsmiths have the responsibility to keep the language Chinese in a healthy and vibrant state.

“The beauty of Chinese culture should be passed down through words. Everything changes, but beauty remains.”

What is "upholding a sense of ethnic belonging"? To him, it is: “Not giving up a five-thousand-year cultural heritage for a fifty-year political shift.”

Early in his poem Associations of the Lotus (蓮的聯想), Yu wrote:

A fashionable cancer is Nihilism.
When evening comes,
Many a soul takes leave of its flesh.

Yet mine divorces me not. Here it stays
With every lotus,
Watchful over its cosmos and mystery.

(Translation: Monicangel_天歌)

Indeed, it was him, shielding the 'lotus' of our culture within his prose and poetry.

Translated by Sharon Tseng.

Additional Reading

♦ Wu Cheng (吳晟) : Don’t Let Cross-strait Issues Hold Taiwan Hostage
♦ Tong Yang-tze (董陽孜) : Reviving the Joy of ‘Characters’
♦ Sisy Chen (陳文茜) : I Refuse to Believe It's Hopeless