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Lee Yong Ping (Chinese: 李永平, September 15, 1947 - September 22, 2017),  a Chinese novelist and translator. Lee Yong Ping was born in British Sarawak (western Borneo, now the territory of Malaysia), and spent his childhood here. As an adult, he left home to study in Taiwan and the United States, and obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Washington University in St. Institute of English Literature. His creations are mainly novels, and his works reveal his identification with his own ethnic group and culture, and he continues to dialectize his hometown by writing about Borneo, China, and Taiwan. His representative works include "Jiling Spring and Autumn", "Haitongqing", and "The End of the River". He has won the National Literature and Art Award, the Global Chinese Literature Nebula Award, the Zhongshan Cup Overseas Chinese Literature Award, etc., and was awarded the National Taiwan University Outstanding Alumni Award.

Lee Yong Ping (Chinese: 李永平, September 15, 1947 - September 22, 2017),  a Chinese novelist and translator. Lee Yong Ping was born in British Sarawak (western Borneo, now the territory of Malaysia), and spent his childhood here. As an adult, he left home to study in Taiwan and the United States, and obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Washington University in St. Institute of English Literature. His creations are mainly novels, and his works reveal his identification with his own ethnic group and culture, and he continues to dialectize his hometown by writing about Borneo, China, and Taiwan. His representative works include "Jiling Spring and Autumn", "Haitongqing", and "The End of the River". He has won the National Literature and Art Award, the Global Chinese Literature Nebula Award, the Zhongshan Cup Overseas Chinese Literature Award, etc., and was awarded the National Taiwan University Outstanding Alumni Award.

1947 - 2017

Mister

Lee Yung Ping

李永平

Lee Yung Ping 李永平.png

Born

15 September 1947

Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Died

22 September 2017 (aged 70)

Mackay Memorial Hospital, Tamsui, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Occupation

Author, Professor, Translator

Genre

Novel, Translation

Awards

時報文學獎、聯合報小說獎

Nationality

Taiwan, Republic of China

Race

Chinese

Ethnicity

Hakka

Ancestry

Resting Place

Alma Mater

National Taiwan University

State University of New York

Washington University in St. Louis

Lee Yong Ping (Chinese: 李永平, September 15, 1947 - September 22, 2017),  a Chinese novelist and translator. Lee Yong Ping was born in British Sarawak (western Borneo, now the territory of Malaysia), and spent his childhood here. As an adult, he left home to study in Taiwan and the United States, and obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Washington University in St. Institute of English Literature. His creations are mainly novels, and his works reveal his identification with his own ethnic group and culture, and he continues to dialectize his hometown by writing about Borneo, China, and Taiwan. His representative works include "Jiling Spring and Autumn", "Haitongqing", and "The End of the River". He has won the National Literature and Art Award, the Global Chinese Literature Nebula Award, the Zhongshan Cup Overseas Chinese Literature Award, etc., and was awarded the National Taiwan University Outstanding Alumni Award.

Li Yongping's ancestral home is Huizhai Town, Jiexi County, Guangdong Province. He is a Hakka. He was born in Kuching, Borneo. In 1966, he published the novel "Son of Borneo", which won the Borneo Cultural Bureau Literature Award. After graduating from high school, he went to Taiwan and studied in the Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature of National Taiwan University. In his later years, he revealed to others that he left because he offended the Malaysian authorities by supporting the independence of Sarawak. [3] After graduating from university, he stayed on as a teaching assistant at National Taiwan University, and at the same time served as the editor of the monthly "Chinese and Foreign Literature". In 1976, he went to the United States to study in the Department of Comparative Literature of the State University of New York at Albany, and obtained a master's degree in 1978. In the same year, he went to Washington University in St. Louis to study for a doctorate in comparative literature, and obtained a doctorate in 1982. During college, under the influence of Wang Wenxing and Yan Yuanshu, he completed the short story "La Zifu" in 1968 and published it in "University Magazine".

After finishing his studies, Li Yongping settled in Taiwan. He successively taught in the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of National Sun Yat-Sen University and the Department of English of Soochow University. Lived in Tamsui after retirement. In addition to being a writer and professor, Li Yongping is also a translator. He has translated more than 25 western works, ranging from pure literature to popular literature, such as "Heaven and Earth - A Sandgull", "Voice of the Wilderness", "Fingerprint of God", "Gloomland" and so on. [4] Died in Taiwan on September 22, 2017, leaving behind an unfinished martial arts novel "The Picture of a New Chivalrous Woman". [5] The ashes were scattered in fresh water off sea.

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1947 - Born in Kuching, Sarawak while under British Colonial

1952 - Begin kindergarten at Kuching Zhonghua(4) Primary School, Primary School at Madang Chinese Public School and Kuching St. Paul's School

1959 - Beginning secondary school at Kuching Zhonghua(4) Secondary School

1962 - Begin studying high school at Kuching English High School

1966 - Published his first book <婆羅洲之子>, "The Son of Borneo"

          - Won 1st Prize in Literature from Borneo Cultural Council

1967 - Went to Taiwan to study foreign language in National Taiwan University

1971 - Graguate from National Taiwan University

          - Working as Assistant Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages

1972 - Served as editor at "Chinese and Foreign Literature"

1976 - Further his study in the United States of America, pursuing Master of Arts in Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Albany

1978 - Complete his Master Degree

          - In the same year, he applied for a doctorate in comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis and was approved

1982 - Obtain a doctorate degree

          - In the same year, he begin his career as assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Languages, Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

1986 - Begin his career as editor of U.S. News & World Report

1987 - Surrender his Malaysia citizenship and became a citizen of Taiwan, Republic of China

          - In the same year, he left Sun Yat-sen University and start concentrating on writing

1989 - Lee's mother pass away

          - In the same year, he began to write <海東青>, and published a series of novels in Lian He Literary Supplement

1992 - Published <海東青>

          - In the same year, he began to teach in the English Department of Soochow University until 1999

2000 - Begin teaching in Donghua University

2008 - Retired from teaching at 61 year old 

          - In the same year, he began to concentrate on writing <大河盡頭>, "The End of the River"

2015 - Published <朱鴒書>

2017 - Pass Away 

SARAWAK

Li Yongping's novels are often set in his hometown of Borneo, so he is often regarded as a Malaysian Chinese writer. However, he himself disagrees with this statement, and even feels disgusted with the Malaysian state itself, because when the British established Malaysia, they ignored the opposition of the locals. Integrate all regions. [7] He renounced his Malaysian citizenship in 1987 and switched to his ROC nationality. [4] However, he still has incessant affection for his native Borneo.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Compared with Malaysia, his own identity with the Hakka ethnic group is relatively stable, and this Hakka identity, combined with the Central Plains culture, that is, Chinese culture, becomes his identity with China. Although he has never stayed in mainland China, he believes that he was conceived by the mother of Chinese culture. Therefore, when creating, he always steps on the standpoint of Chinese culture and chooses characters and thoughts of Chinese culture to write.

TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA

After Li Yongping was studying in university, he spent most of his time in Taiwan, and Taiwan has become his other hometown. However, apart from such personal migration factors, Taiwan's identity is wrapped up in complex political issues. Since the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan after the Civil War, in the eyes of overseas Chinese at that time, the Chinese Communist Party had no tendency to preserve Chinese culture, which made the Kuomintang regime represent the inheritor of Chinese culture. At this time, Taiwan was transformed into a base for the preservation of Chinese culture, and the impression that "Taiwan is equal to China" was formed. In this case, Li Yongping also agrees that Taiwan is a reserved area of ​​Chinese culture, but in this identification, there is inevitably some sense of alienation. On the one hand, he knows that Taiwan is not the Central Plains, and on the other hand, the Chinese culture in Taiwan continues to decline. These feelings appear in his novels, making his identification with Taiwan's China blurred.

DISCUSSION ABOUT HOMETOWN

Li Yongping's special experience of diaspora makes him have a special focus on the discussion of "hometown". Unlike ordinary Chinese writers, the term "Yuanxiang" can almost be taken for granted to point to mainland China. Li Yongping's "hometown" can refer to three places at the same time, namely Borneo, China, and Taiwan. The three places are his hometowns, but they all have their own shortcomings. Borneo is his hometown. However, a kind of colonial attribute makes cultural and political factors mixed together, and he has no way to have a cultural identity with this place. In his earlier novels, he continued to turn to China's origin identity by stating the heterogeneity of Borneo culture. And China is the original place of his ethnic group, that is, the hometown of culture, but due to historical factors and political situation, he failed to return to China, making China an imaginary hometown. In creation, China continues to present itself in cultural identity as a mother. As for Taiwan, it is the place where he studied, that is, the hometown of academics. Taiwan not only retains the characteristics of Chinese culture, but also has the trajectory of his learning. It is a hometown with both experience and cultural characteristics. However, Taiwan is not complete in these two aspects, so the image of Taiwan in his novels becomes the sinful city of Haidong, lacking in culture. Generally speaking, in the discussion of "hometown", Li Yongping's position is not the alienated and unfamiliar hometown, but the lost hometown, which means that the hometown can no longer be returned, and there will always be a gap between culture and place of memory.

CHINESE CULTURE

Because of his Chinese identity, Li Yongping is very particular about the words he chooses when creating, and Chinese orthodoxy should be the primary criterion. In terms of syntax, he avoided Western-style sentences as much as possible. In terms of words, he tried to use existing words in Chinese culture as much as possible, and tried to redevelop words that appeared in the past to expand the use of Chinese characters. In addition to the expression of Chinese culture at the text level, it is not difficult to find Chinese-style writing in the content of the novel. For example, the concept of retribution in China and the writing of ghosts can be found in Li Yongping's novels. In addition, he specifically mentioned the Hakka ethnic group. He does not deliberately emphasize the identity of the Hakka ethnic group in his creations, but he believes that the spirit of the Hakka people still has a certain influence in his creations.

ANTI-WESTERNIZATION

"Anti-Westernization" is a rather special style in Li Yongping's works, and it is mainly a characteristic derived from dealing with local literature. In terms of nationality, it provides affirmation of its own culture, allowing its own nation to have its own identity; in terms of literary creation form, it can clearly mark the center of writing, especially in "Ji In terms of literary development, it echoes the local literature in the 1970s. The content and style of the genre advocated at that time were mainly written to reflect real life for Taiwan, which relied on foreign aid at that time, and used Resist external influences. Under such a writing concept, Li Yongping's works echo the local literature, and hold a critical and corrective attitude towards some shortcomings of foreign cultures in his works.

FEMINISM

In Li Yongping's novels, there are quite a lot of descriptions of women, which is special compared to other novels. By describing innocent women, compare the cities where those women live. The crime and filth of those cities are extremely strong and unbearable. Further, in the writings that lead to the loss of innocence, the destruction of families, and the fall of the country, women still occupy a considerable position in the writings, and even mean the beginning of revenge. Especially when writing about the mother, the mother has changed from the role of the builder to a role similar to that of the destroyer. This contrast is even more shocking. [11][12] In addition, regarding the description of strong women, Li Yongping personally believes that it is related to the perseverance of the Hakka people.

  • Top 100 Chinese novels of 20th century selected by Asia Weekly, Li Yongping's "Jiling Chunqiu" ranked at 40th.

  • "The End of the Great River" (Volume 1: Back to the Flow) won the China Times 2008 Top Ten Book Award.

  • Other works have also won the Times Literary Award Recommendation Award, the United Daily News Novel Award, the United Daily Reader's Best Book of the Year Award, the Central Daily Publishing and Reading Top Ten Best Books in Chinese Creation, and the Dream of the Red Chamber Award.

  • In 2015, he won the National Literature and Art Award.

© 2018 by LEGACYDIA

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