“Whereas many central figures in Taiwan’s post-1949 modernist poetry movement migrated from mainland China, Yang Mu was a native of Hualien. His self-reflexive, erudite, and intellectually rigorous engagement with local history, aesthetic inheritance, and the dynamics of cultural hybridity decisively shaped his poetic corpus. Drawing on postcolonial theory to illuminate this body of work—among the most distinguished achievements in contemporary Sinophone literature—Li’s study productively advances and recalibrates English-language scholarship on Taiwanese literature.” —Yvone Sung-Sheng Chang, University of Texas at Austin

“Wen-chi Li’s Taiwanese Face, Chinese Masks offers an erudite, thought-provoking, and nuanced study of Yang Mu, Taiwan’s foremost lyric poet. Boldly argued, this important book engages the full scope of Yang’s oeuvre, illuminating its cultural, social, and political significance. Li demonstrates that Yang is not only among the finest writers in Sinophone literature but also a major voice in world literature.” —Nicolai Volland, Pennsylvania State University

Wen-chi Li is a Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow at the Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS), University of Bern. He holds a PhD in Sinology from the University of Zurich. His publications include Under the Same Roof: A Poetry Anthology for LGBTQ, Taiwanese Literature as World Literature, and Identity, Multiplicity, and Resistance in Taiwanese Poetry. Dr. Li's co-translated book Decapitated Poetry by Ko-hua Chen was awarded the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize.

Acknowledgments

A Note on Citations, Translation, and Romanization

Introduction

Chapter 1: Confessions of the Masks

Chapter 2: Social Lyricism, Social Mind

Chapter 3: Feelings That Matter

Chapter 4: Sailing on Oceanic Routes

Chapter 5: Against the Grand History

Chapter 6: I’ll Tell You My Story

Coda

Timeline of Events

Bibliography

Index