Acclaimed Taiwanese poet and writer Lin Heng-tai (林亨泰) died on Saturday at the age of 98, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday, adding that it would submit a request for Lin to be honored with a posthumous presidential citation.
Born in 1924 in Beidou County, Taichung Prefecture — which is now known as Changhua County — during the Japanese colonial era, Lin was best known for modern vernacular-style poetry, the ministry said in a statement.
Using the pen names Hen-jen (亨人) and Huan-tai (桓太), Lin was affiliated with several literary organizations, including the Silver Bell Society (銀鈴會), Modernism (現代派), the Li Poetry Society (笠詩社), Taiwan PEN (台灣筆會) and others, the ministry said.
Photo: Taipei Times
In 1949, he published his first poetry collection called The First Cry of the Soul (靈魂的產聲), and in 1956, he became part of the “Modern School” led by poet Ji Xian (紀弦).
Eight years later, he cofounded the Li Poetry Society with literary friends and served as the first editor-in-chief of the Li Poetry (笠詩刊) magazine.
Modern poetry was Lin’s primary genre, the ministry said, adding that, from the release of his first poetry collection in 1949 to Poetry of Life (生命之詩) in 2009, Lin was active for six decades.
He also authored such works as The Long Throat (長的咽喉), Collected Poems of Lin Heng-tai (林亨泰詩集) and The Unbeatable History (跨不過的歷史), and translated An Introduction to the Method of Paul Valery.
Lin received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Oxford Prize for Taiwanese Writers, the Wu San-lien Literary Award and the National Award for Arts, the ministry said.
Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said that Lin was a poet and writer who held a prominent position among the “translingual generation” of writers in Taiwan.
Lin was leaving behind a priceless legacy and a profound example for generations to come, Shih said.
NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE: The agency’s head said he felt a sense of loss watching red-banded snakes eat the babies, as they had decided on non-intervention The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released a documentary on a hundred-pace viper that had incubated 16 eggs, all of which hatched, but only a baby viper escaped after they were attacked by red-banded snakes. The agency’s Taichung branch last year launched the viper reproduction monitoring project soon after forest rangers Lin Chun-yu (林俊佑) and Chou Chia-cheng (周家成) spotted a pregnant hundred-pace viper in a grass-covered burrow near a parking lot in Tbulan Village (松鶴部落). The Atayal village, in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), is headed by Ecyang Yapu, who was positive about the project and assisted in access control and power
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said that it had deployed vessels to “monitor” Chinese ships operating in waters off the east coast. The CGA said it dispatched vessels in response to a China Coast Guard announcement that it had carried out another “routine law-enforcement patrol” in waters off the east coast. “The CGA firmly rejects China’s cognitive warfare campaign of ‘law enforcement in name, jurisdictional expansion in practice,’” it said on X. As of 11am yesterday, two China Coast Guard ships were “loitering and drifting” about 105 nautical miles (195km) and 74 nautical miles east of Green Island (綠島) respectively, it said. It
The first two F-16V Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased from the US were spotted unexpectedly turning back after departing from Hawaii yesterday, potentially further delaying delivery of the aircraft. Taiwan has purchased 66 of the F-16 C/D Block 70 jets to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base (志航基地) in Taitung County and operated by the air force's 7th Tactical Fighter Wing to defend Taiwan’s eastern region. Two single-seat jets, bearing serial No. 6727 and 6728, were spotted taking off from Hickam Field in Hawaii yesterday, observers said. Based on the precedent set during the delivery of Taiwan's older F-16 Block 20s, the new
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
RSS