Chinese Name: 曾貴海
Born: Feb. 1, 1946
Died: Aug. 6, 2024
Birthplace: Pingtung County (Southern Taiwan)
Did You Know That…?
In 2023, the Taipei Representative Office in Ireland collaborated with Trinity College Dublin to launch a poetry translation competition, inviting professional translators to translate Tseng Kuei-hai’s Hakka poem “Sky Light (天光)” into English.
Born in 1946 in a Hakka village in Pingtung’s Jiadong Township (佳冬鄉), Tseng Kuei-hai was not only a poet but also a doctor, social campaigner, and environmental activist. After graduating from the School of Medicine at Kaohsiung Medical College (now Kaohsiung Medical University), Tseng worked as a pulmonologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 1973 to 1976. He moved to Kaohsiung City in 1976 and worked at Kaohsiung Provincial Hospital (now Kaohsiung Municipal Min-Sheng Hospital). His dedication to his profession earned him the Lai Ho Medical Service Award (賴和醫療服務獎) and the Taiwan Medical Model Award (臺灣醫療典範獎).
To promote Taiwanese literature, Tseng co-founded the Amoeba Poetry Society (阿米巴詩社) in 1966 with friends while still a college student. In 1982, Tseng collaborated with writers Yeh Shih-tao (葉石濤), Cheng Chiung-ming (鄭炯明), Chen Kun-lun (陳坤崙), Hsu Chen-chiang (許振江), and Peng Rui-chin (彭瑞金) to launch “Literary World,” the first literary magazine in southern Taiwan. The following year, Tseng published his debut poetry collection, “The Whale Festival (鯨魚的祭典).” He founded the quarterly “Literary Taiwan” and became its publisher in 1991.
In 2000, Tseng released his Hakka poetry collection “Hometown: Night Lily (原鄉．夜合),” revealing his awakened Hakka consciousness. His writing takes a sentimental journey in search of roots, tracing his ancestry back to Hakka, Hoklo, and Taiwanese Plains Indigenous peoples, while highlighting Taiwan’s multiracial society. Through his poems, he underlined ethnic integration on the island.
Written in Mandarin, Hakka, and Taigi, his works encompass poems, prose, literary criticisms, and lyrics, showcasing diverse creative expressions. Tseng’s representative works include “An Island Nation on the Waves (浪濤上的島國),” “Image (畫面),” “Floating and Drifting (浮游),” “The Song of the White Bird (白鳥之歌),” and “Voyage to Freedom (航向自由).” Over sixty years, Tseng’s tireless pen reflected his concerns for the land and the country. He received numerous accolades, including the Kaohsiung Culture & Arts Award, Wu Zhuo-liu Literary Award (吳濁流文學獎), and Oxford Prize for Taiwanese Writers. In 2022, Tseng was honored with the International Poet Award at the 15th Guayaquil International Poetry Festival Ileana Espinel Cedeño in Ecuador, becoming the first Asian poet to get the award.
Tseng noted that the diversity of Taiwanese literature stems from Taiwan’s status as a multilingual island nation and that its literary roots have inevitably grown from the island’s cultural soil. He described literature as the art of language, through which poetry is created, and emphasized his efforts to convey a Taiwanese voice in literature while exploring the collective consciousness and values of Taiwanese people.
As a member of the Hakka ethnic group, Tseng actively participated in Hakka affairs, from the Meinong anti-reservoir movement and the preservation of historic sites in Hakka villages to community-building campaigns for Hakka regions. In 2017, Tseng received the Hakka Contribution Award in recognition of his selfless contributions.
Tseng did not confine himself to his Hakka identity. He was also deeply concerned with environmental issues in Kaohsiung, dedicating himself to social reforms and environmental protection. He played a key role in the development of the Weiwuying Metropolitan Park (衛武營都會公園) and the renovation of the Central Park (中央公園), pioneering green movements in southern Taiwan. As a civil rights leader, he was a driving force for societal transformation.
To Tseng, a true poet is someone who engages with social issues, cares about the nation, justice, language, and the environment, and possess a wealth of life experiences. The doctor-poet believed that involvement in social movements was not contradictory to writing poetry, and he encouraged poets to stand up bravely against injustice and oppression.