Veteran poet Huang Tenghui passed away yesterday (21st) at the age of 95.
Upon hearing the news, Minister of Culture Li Yuan expressed his condolences and said that Huang Tenghui has devoted himself to poetry creation for many years, and the "Li" poetry magazine as the publisher is an important fertile ground for Taiwan's poetry circle. The Ministry of Culture will award him a certificate of commendation in recognition.
Huang Tenghui was born in 1931 in Zhubei, Hsinchu County. He graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Taipei Polytechnic School (now the National Taipei University of Technology) and graduated from the Law Department of Soochow University. He once served as the executive director and general manager of China Ryoden Corporation (now Taiwan Mitsubishi Elevator Co., Ltd.), executive director of the Taiwan Modern Poets Association, and has long been the publisher of the poetry magazine "Li".
Huang Tenghui grew up during the Japanese colonial period and received Japanese education in his childhood. When he was in elementary school, he wrote short songs in Japanese and submitted them to newspapers. After the war, as the language and education system changed, he re-learned Chinese and published articles in newspapers such as Guangming Daily, Bamboo Wind Daily, and Youth Herald. His writing genres included prose, novels, and poems. From the age of about 20, he gradually focused on modern poetry creation. He can be regarded as one of the first generation of poets to write poetry in Chinese after the war.
In the 1950s, Huang Tenghui was active in poetry publications such as New Poetry Weekly, Blue Star Weekly, Today's New Poetry, and Qing Tide. His early works were more romantic and lyrical, but later he gradually turned to realism, writing about the economic phenomena of industrial and commercial society, urban life, and the situation of modern people, presenting his observation and reflection on social reality. His experience in industrial and commercial enterprises further expanded the themes of his poems, making modern industry, commercial economy, and urban life an important aspect of observation and writing.
Huang Tenghui is a "translingual" poet, and language conversion has always been an important issue in his creative process. This life experience spanning the Japanese colonial period and the post-war period, Japanese and Chinese, gives his creations distinctive generational characteristics. Huang Tenghui's life spanned the important stages of Taiwan's transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial and commercial society. He witnessed the development of modern Taiwanese poetry after the war. In addition to continuing to create, he also supported the operation of poetry societies for a long time and participated in the formation and inheritance of Taiwan's modern poetry. Since the founding of "Li" Poetry Magazine in 1965, he has served as the publisher. At a time when the political environment was still sensitive, he has continued to support the operation of "Li" Poetry Magazine, which valued Taiwan's local experience and realistic writing. He has a long-term sense of responsibility for the poetry society and the magazine, and has mentored younger generations. He is honored by Li poets as the "eternal publisher."
