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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS