Yang Mu
| Yang Mu 楊牧 |
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| Born | September 6, 1940 Hualien County, Taiwan |
| Occupation | Poet, essayist, critic, professor in classical Chinese literature |
| Language | Chinese and English |
| Nationality | Taiwan |
| Education | Ph.D of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley |
| Period | 1956–present |
| Genre | Poetry and prose |
| Notable awards | National Culture and Arts Award (國家文藝獎) Best Chinese Writing in the World (世界華文文學獎) Newman Prize for Chinese Literature (紐曼華語文學獎） Cikada Prize (瑞典蟬獎） |
| Website | |
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Yang Mu (traditional Chinese:楊牧;simplified Chinese：杨牧; pinyin:Yáng Mù) is the pen name of a Taiwanese poet, essayist and critic in Chinese language. He was born as Wang Ching-hsien (王靖獻) on September 6, 1940 in Hualien County, Taiwan. As one of the representative figures in the field of contemporary Taiwanese literature, he is famous for combining the graceful style and writing techniques of Chinese classical poetry with elements of Western culture. Apart from romantic feelings, his works also reflect strong awareness of humanistic concern, which has thus brought him widespread attention and high respect. He was named the laureate of the 2013 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, making him the first poet and the first Taiwanese writer to win the award.
When he was 16, only a middle school student, he started off using the pen name Ye Shan (Chinese: 葉珊) and publishing his own works in several poetry magazines such as Blue Star, Modern Poetry and Genesis. Then he entered Tunghai University and studied history. However, he later found that it went against his genuine interest and finally transferred to the Department of Foreign Languages to pursue his literary ideals. At that time, Yang Mu exposed himself to British romantic poetry and was directly influenced by some defining members of the English Romantic Movement, like William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats.
After his graduation from Tunghai University, Yang Mu chose to go to the United States for further study. In 1966, he obtained his Master of Fine Arts (English: Creative Writing) at the University of Iowa. Notably, a group of writers who later have become leading figures in the literary scene in contemporary Taiwan like Bai Xianyong, Yu Guangzhong, Ye Weilian and Wang Wenxing, are all his alumni at UI. And in 1971, he gained Ph.D of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His studying in America, obviously, contributed to the changes of his poetry style. Since 1972, he has written a series of works to convey his deep concern about the social reality under his new pen name Yang Mu (Chinese: 楊牧). Changing from emphasizing sentimental and romantic feelings to intervening in social issues, the works in Yang Mu's later period appear to be more calm, reserved and profound.
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