Renowned Taiwanese poet Cheng Chou-yu (鄭愁予) passed away in the early hours of Friday at the age of 91.
Another local poet Hsiao Hsiao (蕭蕭) said yesterday that according to Cheng’s sister-in-law Lin Tsai-kuei (林彩桂), Cheng passed away due to heart failure.
Born in 1933, Cheng’s birth name was Cheng Wen-tao (鄭文韜). He was born in Jinan, Shandong Province in China, and his ancestral home was in Ninghe, Hebei. In 1949, he moved to Taiwan with his family following the Nationalist government’s retreat to the island.
Photo: Taipei Times
In 1967, Cheng went to the United States to participate in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, later earning a Master of Fine Arts degree and doctoral degrees.
He taught at the University of Iowa, Yale University and the University of Hong Kong, and in 2005 returned to Taiwan to serve as a writer-in-residence at National Dong Hwa University.
At the age of 16, Cheng self-published his first poetry collection, Straw Sandals and a Raft. He later published numerous poetry collections including Slave Girls Outside the Window (窗外的女奴) and The Possibility of Snow (雪的可能). His most famous poem, The Mistake (錯誤), is highly praised and often cited as a classic in Taiwanese literature. It was included in Taiwan’s Chinese language textbooks.
Cheng was also a frequent traveler, as demonstrated by a line in the Mistake: “I am a passer-by, not a returned man.”
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