14NostalgiaAuthor's Biography,Writing Background

Yu Guangzhong, originally from Yongchun, Fujian Province, was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in 1928, and enrolled in the Department of Foreign Languages at Jinling University (later transferred to Xiamen University) in 1947. In 1949, Yu Guangzhong moved to Hong Kong with his parents, and went to Taiwan the following year to attend the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Taiwan University. In 1953, he founded the "Blue Star" Poetry Society with Qin Zihao and Zhong Dingwen. He went to the United States for further study and received a master's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. After returning to Taiwan, he became a professor at the University of Poetry, the National Chengchi University, the National Taiwan University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and is currently the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Yu Kwang-chung is a complex and volatile poet, and the trajectory of his change can basically be said to be the same as that of the entire poetry world in Taiwan over the past thirty years, i.e., Westernization followed by a return to the West. In the early poetry polemics in Taiwan and the vernacular literature polemics of the mid-1970s, Yu's poetic theories and works showed a strong tendency to advocate westernization, disregard for readers, and detachment from reality. As he himself said, "When I was a boy, the tip of my pen was stained with either the aftermath of Heatonkering or the water of the Thames. The industry was nothing but 1842 wine." After the 1980s, he began to realize the importance of the place where his people lived to his creative work, and "extended his poetic brush back to that continent," writing many moving nostalgic poems, and changing his attitude toward vernacular literature from opposition to affinity, showing a clear trajectory of returning from the West to the East, and thus was called "The Returning Wanderer" by the Taiwanese poetic community. Thus, he was called the "Prodigal Son" by the Taiwanese poetic circles. In terms of poetic art, Yu Guangzhong is an "artistic polygamist poet. The style of his works is extremely inconsistent. Generally speaking, his poetic style varies according to the subject matter. Poems that express will and ideals are usually bold and resonant, while those that describe nostalgia and love are usually delicate and soft. He is the author of more than ten collections of poems, including The Boat's Lament, Blue Feathers, Stalactites, Halloween, and Bitter Gourd in White Jade.

Writing Background

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the 10-year-old Yu Guangzhong moved around Shanghai and Chongqing with his parents.

When he was 22 years old, Yu Guangzhong came to Taiwan with his family and was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of National Taiwan University.

While majoring in foreign languages, Yu had a strong interest in traditional Chinese culture. He has written extensively on poetry, prose, criticism, and translation, and his most outstanding achievement is in poetry. It has been commented that his poems have a wide range of subjects, varied styles, and colorful techniques, blending traditional and modern, Chinese and Western writing styles. For this reason, he is regarded as one of the "Ten Great Poets" of Taiwan's modern school.

In 1971, Yu Guangzhong, who hadn't been back to the mainland for more than 20 years, was so homesick that he wrote a poem in his old house on Xiamen Street in Taipei. After writing it, the poet burst into tears and meditated for a long time.