Tue, Sep 09, 2003 page2

• Renowned writer Xiang Yang passes big milestone

  • By Jewel Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  After working 16 hours a day, for 20 successive days in the sweltering July heat, Lin Chi-yang (林淇瀁), widely known by his pen name Xiang Yang (向陽), finished the taxing work of writing 430 entries totalling 60,000 characters of his new work Lei Chen's Black Paper Memoirs on the Creation of A New Party soon after earning his PhD in journalism at National Chengchi University this May.

  While fully occupied with projects as a poet, a political critic and a college lecturer, Lin finished his dissertation on Taiwan's political evolution and media history of the 1950s at the age of 48 after nine years of research, using Free China biweekly founded by Lei Chen in 1949 as his primary source.

  "I think everyone who wants to understand the ethos and truth of this period ruled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should read Free China and Lei's memoir -- especially journalists and politicians," he said.

  

  Poet, lecturer and journalist Xiang Yang has made his debut as a major scholar with the completion of his dissertation on Taiwanese politics and the media in the 1950s.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  "In fact, Lei inspired a lot of figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) burgeoning in the 1950s," Lin added.

  Praising Lei as an uebermensch, in the tradition of German philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche, Lin said that his admiration for Lei has come from a belief in democracy and human rights, and it has nothing to do with national identity.

  "As a Taiwan native who grew up in rural Nantou, I felt sad for Lei when reading his manuscripts. Lei dared to challenge Chiang Kai-shek's authoritarianism and made a case for the freedom of speech and democracy even though he was an elite mainlander," Lin said. "I view Lei as a warrior."

  In 1960, Lei was put in jail for treason by the Chiang administration with a 10-year sentence because of the articles criticizing Chiang printed in Free China and Lei's intention to launch the China Democratic Party (中國民主黨) to confront the KMT's oligarchy. Lei's persecution is known as the "Lei Chen Incident."

  Wang Jung-wen (王榮文), who is president of Yuanliou Publishing Company which published Lei Chen's "black paper" memoir last Wednesday said that Lin is the optimal person to fulfill such a special task. "Black paper" means unofficial, in contrast to the better-known term "White Paper," which has come to mean an official document.

  "Lin studied Lei's life and Free China with a poet's sensibility and a seasoned journalist's sense while he also obeyed the serious rules of the academic research," said Wang, who also dubbed Lin as a `poet scholar.' "Mr. Lin's annotations provided good details for readers who do not familiar with the Lei's incident," Lin said.

  Determined to be a poet at the age of 13 and considering it as a lifetime commitment, Lin led the Chinese free-verse movement of the 1970s and devoted himself to the political reform movement of the 1980s. Lin has published more than 15 anthologies with the motifs of Taiwan local culture and local ties to the land.

  Some of his poems were written in Hokkien. Standpoint, a poem written by Lin in 1984, expresses his longing for greater toleration between ideologies, it has been included as required reading in high-school Chinese-language textbooks.

  Lin is a veteran commentator of the press. He was the editor in chief of the Independence Evening Post (自立晚報) at the age of 32, also the youngest chief editor among the newspapers at that time. In his years at the Independence Evening Post, he gave a voice to those who were deported by the KMT and to mainlander veterans who wanted to return to China. In recent years, Lin has translated his journalistic career into writing political critiques and children's literature and his academic research.

  "I really appreciate his perseverance and energy in his academic research and literary productivity," Lin Yuan-hui (林元輝), Lin Chi-yang's adviser at the graduate school of journalism, said. "His vitality has truly impressed me."

  Lin's wife and editor of the Chinese-language Liberty Times' literature supplement Fang Tzu (方梓) typified her husband's mind as a databank. She attests to his work ethnic, saying that he is so absorbed in his work that he often neglects sleep and meals.

  Even so, "he holds a professional attitude toward everything he does," Fang said when asked if Lin Chi-yang has ever been bothered by his multiple careers.

  Lin Chi-yang will publish a new anthology titled Chaos (亂), a book about Zen and a literary criticism at the end of the year.
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