Preface
Taiwanese Hakka Literature Paves the Way for the World to Get to Know Taiwan
Hakka literature is the jewel of Taiwanese literature and the most resilient and beautiful business card of Taiwan!
To fully appreciate the diversity of Taiwanese literature and gain a comprehensive understanding of Taiwans historical development, one must read Hakka literature. Generation after generation of Hakka writers have created works in various forms such as prose, novels, poems, songs, and literary criticism. This rich and moving literature reflects the outlook on nature and life in Hakka culture, and also records and passes down the history of ethnic groups and society. Hakka literature is, without a doubt, the jewel of Taiwanese literature and the most resilient and splendid business card of Taiwan!
In order to facilitate global acquaintance with Taiwan and its Hakka literature, the Hakka Affairs Council has since 2018 translated many classic works of Hakka literature into multiple languages including English, Japanese, Spanish, and Czech, to interact with readers around the world. The publication of the English and Spanish translations of The Dawn Train: Collected Poems of Tseng Kuei-hai features a reorganized and carefully curated selection of 132 poems by Dr. Tseng Kuei-hai to engage in a dialogue with the world, once again writing a new page in the Hakka Affairs Councils promotion of Hakka literature overseas and the Hakka Renaissance.
As one of Taiwans most representative contemporary poets, Tseng Kuei-hai is also a doctor and social activist. Within his abundant creative energy, he integrates the rationality and sensibility of a doctor with the spirit of innovation and humanistic critique. In 2022, Tseng Kuei-hai was awarded the 15th International Poetry Award at Ecuadors XV Festival de Poesia de Guayaquil Ileana Espinel Cedeno, becoming the first Asian poet to receive this award, which is of great significance.
Tseng Kuei-hai, who grew up in a Hakka village, discovered in his thirties that he has Hakka, Pingpu, and Hoklo ancestry. His crossethnic life experience is not only about his bloodline, but also about his actions in caring for humanity across fields such as medicine, literature, environmental ecology, educational reform, democratic movements, and other civic movements. "Healing the sick, healing people, healing society", Tseng is a practitioner of "the superior doctor heals the nation", and a model of Hakka participation in civil society.
As a Hakka writer, Tseng Kuei-hai not only writes in Chinese and his mother tongue, Hakka, but also in Holo. His focus encompasses the indigenous tribes of Taiwan, transcending ethnic groups through writing. Tseng Kuei-hai uses his pen as a poet to convey his care for the natural environment and the land, and his reflections and criticism of ethnic history, colonization, and authoritarian rule make his works particularly vivid historical records, with a high degree of global relevance. In the current pursuit of global sustainability and regional peace and development, we believe that the works gathered in The Dawn Train: Collected Poems of Tseng Kuei-hai will resonate with English and Spanish readers around the world, and enhance interest in understanding Taiwan, which holds a unique position in regional politics.
Yiong Con-ziin
Minister of Hakka Affairs Council
