"Wu Ming-Yi stands as one of the most outstanding living writers of environmental and nature-related speculative fiction and critical literature in any language. In this compelling volume, Berry and Chiu have assembled a world-class cohort of critical thinkers from Taiwan, North America, and Europe to examine Wu’s remarkable body of work and introduce English-language readers to his literary genius. Wu’s celebrated novel The Man with the Compound Eyes, which has garnered widespread acclaim in translation, exemplifies his mastery of blending ecological themes with speculative narratives. This volume is required reading for anyone seeking innovative perspectives on the global environmental crisis—from ‘CliFi’ enthusiasts and world literature scholars to environmental activists and visionary policymakers. A brilliant volume." —Ari Heinrich, Australian National University
"A timely and bold intervention, this landmark volume illuminates the many talents of one of Taiwan’s most celebrated literary figures. While he is best known for his environmental imagination and nature-centered storytelling, this companion reveals Wu Ming-Yi as a gifted educator, an incisive ecocritic, a cosmopolitan naturalist, and a talented writer and artist deeply engaged with Taiwan’s Indigenous worlds and ecological futures. Michael Berry and Kuei-fen Chiu bring together a definitive collection of essays that are at once conceptually rigorous and beautifully crafted, impressive in both breadth and depth. The book is a fascinating guide to Wu’s work, which itself stages Taiwan’s global odyssey through inviting dialogues between fictive idioms and social patterns, ecological disasters and orders of knowledge, biopolitics and nonhuman agents, and the layered momentum of history and the shadow of modernity." —Howard Chiang, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi has emerged as a major presence in contemporary global literature, at once grounded in his environmental and social worlds and remarkable for the imaginative force of his storytelling. His work spans case studies of ecological distress—such as his research on butterflies—to scholarly books on nature writing, and , above all, to the speculative novels that have earned him international acclaim—works of striking imagination, emotional depth, and political resonance, such as The Man with the Compound Eyes, a contemporary classic. Coedited by leading scholars Michael Berry and Kuei-fen Chiu, this collection gathers insightful essays on all aspects of Wu’s oeuvre. It includes analyses of his literary works, his environmental commitments, perspectives on translating his fiction, and Wu Ming-Yi’s own reflections on his intellectual project through a translated essay of his writing process and an in-depth interview. The volume concludes with an appendix of Wu’s own images and an extensive, multifaceted bibliography. Meticulously edited and thoughtfully organized, this companion is an indispensable resource for scholars and teachers of Chinese and Sinophone literature, as well as for readers interested in environmental studies. The contributors represent an international cross-section of scholars, some of whom are widely recognized as among the leading voices in modern Chinese and Sinophone writing. This book is essential reading for anyone engaged with Taiwan studies and for readers committed to environmental issues." —Christopher Lupke, University of Alberta
