Taiwanese novelist and poet Tan Lui (陳雷) passed away on June 29 in Toronto, Canada. Upon receiving the news, Minister of Culture Li Yuan expressed his condolences and praised Tan’s lifelong dedication to promoting Taigi literature. He recognized Tan as a pioneering figure in post-war Taigi fiction whose works not only chronicled Taiwan’s history but also forged a literary voice unique to the island.
Born Wu Ching-yu (吳景裕) in 1939 in Shanghai, China, Tan moved to Taiwan with his family at the age of six. After graduating from the School of Medicine at National Taiwan University, he earned a doctorate in immunology in Canada. Having long resided in Toronto, he became one of the most influential Taiwanese literary figures in North America.
Tan was a driving force behind the Taigi language movement and a co-founder of the publication “Tâi-bûn Thong-sìn (台文通訊, meaning “Taigi Bulletin”).” He was also the first writer to create a substantial body of work entirely in Taigi, whose literary creations encompass various genres such as novels, prose, and scripts.
In the early 1980s, Tan completed the novel “Spring of One Hundred Homes (百家春),” a story based on the February 28 Incident of 1947. Rare for its time, the work was published in the magazine “Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代).” Another landmark work, “Supplement to the Rural History (鄉史補記),” focuses on the Indigenous Siraya people and remains the only known epic novel written in Taigi. Spanning more than 270,000 words, the novel took Tan six years to complete.
In June 2025, Tan was honored by the Hoat-Ki Taiwanese Foundation (蔣發太孫玉枝台語文教育基金會) with the Lifelong Contribution Award in recognition of his invaluable contributions to Taiwanese literature.
(Photo credit: Oo Tiong-siong)