A Critical Guide to the Works of Major Contemporary Taiwanese Poets
A Critical Guide to the Works of Postwar Generation Poet Cheng Ching-Ming
/ Chen Qu-Fei
I. Life and Participation in Literary Societies
1. Life Events
Cheng Ching-Ming (1948–), was born in Kaohsiung City, with family origins in Jiali, Tainan. He was born into a family of physicians; his father once practiced medicine in Gushan, Kaohsiung. Cheng Ching-Ming attended school in Kaohsiung from elementary through high school, graduating from Kaohsiung Senior High School. In 1966, he was admitted to Zhongshan Medical College (now Zhongshan Medical University). After completing his studies, he worked at Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital as an attending physician in internal medicine. In later years, he established his own private practice, maintaining dual identities as both physician and poet.
From high school, Cheng Ching-Ming showed a strong literary interest. Beginning in his second year of high school, he gradually published poems in newspapers and magazines. His poetic style attracted attention in literary circles, and he published works such as Twenty Poems in the Li Poetry Journal, becoming a core member of the "Li Poetry Society." In the poetry world, he is known for combining social realism with symbolic language. His works cover a wide range of themes, including object poems, political poems, lyric poems, reflective poems, and character-centered poems, integrating humanistic consciousness with social critique.
2. Participation in Literary Societies
1) Li Poetry Society
Cheng Ching-Ming joined the Li Poetry Society in 1968. This society is a highly representative local poetry society in the history of modern Taiwanese poetry, emphasizing realist writing and political concern. Later, Cheng Ching-Ming served as president of the Li Poetry Society, long promoting Taiwan’s native poetry movement.
2) Taiwan Writers’ Association
He served as chairman of the Taiwan Writers’ Association, participating in multiple international literary exchanges and cultural advocacy activities, striving to enhance the visibility of Taiwanese literature globally.
3) Literature Taiwan Foundation
To support his publishing and cultural initiatives, Cheng Ching-Ming established the "Literature Taiwan Foundation," serving as the operational core for literary publications and events.
4) Zhong Li-He Cultural and Educational Foundation
He also participated in, or served as chairman of, this foundation, helping promote literary education and cultural commemorative activities.
3. Founding and Managing Publications
1) Literary World
In 1982, Cheng Ching-Ming co-founded Literary World magazine with Ye Shih-Tao, Chen Kun-Lun, Zeng Gui-Hai, and others, serving as the publisher. Literary World aimed to advocate Taiwan’s realism and humanistic concern, becoming an important publication for the South Taiwan literary movement in the 1980s. The magazine ceased publication in 1989.
2) Literature Taiwan
In 1991, Cheng Ching-Ming founded Literature Taiwan, continuing the spirit and editorial direction of Literary World, emphasizing local culture, democratic values, and literary autonomy. He simultaneously established the "Literature Taiwan Foundation" to support the magazine’s operations, serving as publisher and planner.
II. Guided Reading of Poems
Cheng Ching-Ming is known in literary circles for combining social concern with symbolic language. His poetic themes span object poems, political poems, lyric poems, reflective poems, and character-centered poems, integrating humanistic consciousness with social critique.
1. Object Poems (e.g., Sweet Potato, Dog, Garbage, Lime Kiln, Cicada, Hat, Drum) — Using objects to symbolize people, blending subject and object, showcasing a new object-oriented style.
2. Political Poems (e.g., To the Dictator, Hunger Strike, Message, Disappearance, Questions, Fairy Tale, Slogan, Patient with Amnesia) — Critiquing authoritarianism, exposing oppression, combining allegorical and satirical qualities.
3. Lyric Poems (e.g., Autumn Night, Night, Harm, Understanding, Mixed Chorus, A Woman’s Confession, Please Forgive Me, The Last Love Song, Time. Flower) — Centered on love and existential reflection, sincere tone with philosophical depth.
4. Character-Centered Poems (e.g., Beggar, Misunderstanding, Magician, Tightrope Walker) — Reflecting social reality through individual fates, rich in dramatic tension and symbolism.
5. Reflective Poems (e.g., Questions in the Dark) — Self-examination of the poet’s creation and conscience, exhibiting meta-poetic awareness.
1. Object Poems
1) Narrative Perspective and Person Analysis
Cheng Ching-Ming’s object poems are most representative when written in the “first-person perspective.” The poems often begin with “I,” using objectification or self-projection, allowing “I” and the poem’s objects (such as sweet potato, dog, cicada, drum, etc.) to become identified with one another and create metaphorical interpenetration.
The characteristics of this narrative perspective are:
- “I” is not purely human but transformed into the consciousness of an object;
- The object in the poem gains personalized thoughts and emotions;
- “I”’s language simultaneously serves as the object’s language, demonstrating a lyric strategy of subject-object co-formation.
Poem Example 1: Sweet Potato
"I must stand up and speak / Speak from the standpoint of a sweet potato"
Here, “I” is the sweet potato itself. The poet uses the first-person narration of the sweet potato to reveal a destiny of being plundered, cooked, and consumed, symbolizing the exploited people or oppressed grassroots life. This “objectified I” narrative imparts deep irony and empathy to the poem.
Poem Example 2: Dog
"I am not an obedient dog, I know / Because an obedient dog does not bark"
The poet assumes the perspective of the “dog,” using the first-person voice to express individual resistance and defiance against authority. Superficially a confession of the dog, it is in fact a denunciation of the poet’s own conscience.
This “objectified self-narration” perspective carries strong political symbolism.
Poem Example 3: Cicada
"Just like me at this moment / I must desperately use language to seek comfort for the soul"
This poem uses a first-person observational perspective of the cicada. However, by the end, the relationship between “I” and the cicada reflects mutual projection, mapping the poet’s creative anxiety onto the cicada’s chirping, achieving subject-object interchange.
Summary:
Cheng Ching-Ming’s object poems often shift between the “first-person perspective of the object” and “poet’s subject perspective,” simultaneously using the object as metaphor and “I” as testimony, forming a double-voiced poetic structure.
II. Rhetorical Techniques and Guided Reading of Poems
Cheng Ching-Ming’s object poems often employ multiple layers of rhetorical strategies, such as “objectification,” “personification,” “symbolism,” and “irony.” The characteristic of his rhetoric lies in: concretizing human spiritual conditions through objects, or revealing social reality and inner conscience through the transformation of objects.
1. Objectification (turning humans into objects)
He often transforms “human consciousness” into “the language of objects,” giving voice through the mouth of objects.
Example: Sweet Potato
The poet identifies as a sweet potato:
"Alas, who made me a sweet potato / A sweet potato loved by all"
Here, the “objectification” allows the sweet potato to possess self-awareness and the capacity to protest. The plot of being “dug up” and “eaten” not only represents the fate of crops but also symbolizes the existence of the oppressed being stripped away. Objectification internalizes social metaphor into the narrative subject of the poem.
2. Personification (turning objects into humans)
Objects are endowed with human traits and emotions, forming a poetic equivalence.
Example: Lime Kiln
"The lime kiln under the blazing sun is burning / At its deep bottom / Its iron-bronze skin cries from the heat"
The lime kiln is personified into a living being “with skin that cries,” symbolizing the pain and burning endured by the laboring class under the pressures of the era. This type of personification carries strong social allegorical meaning.
3. Symbolism and Metaphor
Objects are not merely objects but symbols of “mental or spiritual states.”
Example: Dog
The dog symbolizes the intellectual or poet suppressed but still barking truthfully. The repeated phrase in the poem, “I am not an obedient dog,” reinforces a posture of resistance. This symbolic transformation extends from the animal to the ethical realm, expressing persistence in existence.
4. Irony and Self-Awareness
The poet often injects irony into the object’s self-confession, giving the poem a deep social-critical meaning.
Example: Hat
"Weave lies into a hat / Put it on your head / Go flaunting everywhere"
Here, the “hat” symbolizes false honor and self-deception. Using everyday objects as metaphor, the poem exposes the hypocrisy of society and human hearts. When the fierce wind blows the hat away, the “bald head” becomes the true naked self. This symbolic-ironic technique is central to the poetics of Cheng Ching-Ming’s object poems.
III. Comparison and Guided Reading of Object Poems and New Objectivity Poems
Cheng Ching-Ming’s “object poems” and “New Objectivity poems” are similar in form but differ clearly in consciousness and language orientation.
1. Characteristics of Object Poems
The poet expresses inner emotion through the “objectified subject.” Objects serve as a medium for emotion, possessing lyricism and symbolism. Representative works such as Sweet Potato and Dog are narrated from the perspective of objects, emphasizing resonance and empathy between humans and objects.
The language of the poems leans toward subjectivity, lyricism, and situational drama.
Example: Sweet Potato
The poem runs through the first-person confession of “I,” full of metaphors for the oppressed individual. The poet expresses humanistic calls through the mouth of the sweet potato. Here, object poems are not merely descriptions of objects but a display of the poet’s ethical stance.
2. Characteristics of New Objectivity Poems
“New Objectivity Poems” inherit the spirit of German Neue Sachlichkeit, emphasizing calm, objective, and observational expression. Cheng Ching-Ming’s New Objectivity poems lean toward “New Realism,” focusing on the existence of objects themselves rather than merely as symbolic vessels.
For example, poems such as Garbage and Lime Kiln transform into social allegories of object observation.
Example: Garbage
The poem narrates in third person, reflecting on oneself:
"You crouching by the roadside at night / Truly look like a pile of garbage"
It reflects the phenomenon of humans being objectified by society. The shattered mirror symbolizes self-awareness. Although the poem is object-themed, it shifts from “object self-narration” to “humans observing objects; humans as objects,” with a calmer tone and more rational structure.
Example: Lime Kiln
The poet uses observational language to depict the industrial scene:
"We are like a group of hungry gray stones waiting to burn"
Here, “we” is no longer the purely lyrical “I” but the collective consciousness of a generation being consumed. This represents the transition from lyrical object poems toward social reality.
3. Comparative Summary
|
Aspect |
Object Poems |
New Objectivity Poems |
|
Narrative Perspective |
First-person objectified, strong subjective emotion |
Third-person observational, objective realism |
|
Expressive Orientation |
Lyric through objects, humanized objects |
Observe the world through objects, reveal reality |
|
Rhetorical Features |
Objectification, personification, symbolism, irony |
Concise, calm, concretized imagery, social allegory in poetry |
|
Examples |
Sweet Potato, Dog, Cicada |
Garbage, Lime Kiln |
IV. Comprehensive Evaluation
Cheng Ching-Ming’s object poems develop from early “object-human sympathy” to mid-period “New Objectivity observation,” demonstrating his transformation from lyric poet to social observer. He employs techniques of objectification and symbolism, giving poetic life to everyday objects and infusing humanistic spirit through calm observation. Whether from the “standpoint of the sweet potato” or the “awakening of garbage,” the ultimate orientation of his poetry is a call for “human dignity” and a reflection on the conscience of the times.
II. Political Poetry
1. Narrative Perspective and Grammatical Person
1. First-Person Identification (the “objectified I”)
Characteristic:
In the poems, “I” often directly assumes the role of an oppressed or objectified subject. The tone contains both confession and accusation, elevating personal experience into a universal ethical and political declaration.
Poetic example: To the Dictator confronts authoritarian power through the first person:
“You can cut off my tongue…”
The entire poem adopts a self-accusatory narrative structure of “I am persecuted / I still resist.” The tone is firm and carries moral authority.
Poetic example: Hunger Strike likewise uses “I / the consequences we may become” to ironically reflect upon the choice of self-preservation:
“For the sake of not eating things indiscriminately
then let us simply go on a hunger strike…
but
the result of hunger strike is still death.”
Through the first-person perspective, the poem highlights the absurdity and tragic nature of such a decision.
2. The First Person as a Representative Collective (from individual to community)
Characteristic:
Although expressed as “I,” the context often expands into “we,” or represents an oppressed collective, giving individual experience universality and representational significance.
Poetic example: In Message:
“Please allow me to sacrifice for you
to sacrifice unconditionally
so long as you remain forever beautiful, free, and democratic.”
Here “I” is not merely an individual, but represents the collective cultural and civic conscience concerned with the fate of the island.
3. Witnessing, Observation, and Interrogation in Narrative (use of second and third person)
Characteristic:
Although the poems mainly employ the first person, they frequently introduce addressees (“you,” “who,” “they”), forming a confrontational dialogic structure.
Poetic example: Questioning repeatedly asks “Who is it?”
Although it is not an extended first-person monologue, the poem speaks from the perspective of the wounded subject, directing questions toward an unknown power.
In Disappearance, while narrating the actions of “I,” the poem simultaneously describes the search conducted by others (“they”), creating tension between subject and other.
4. Responsive and Allegorical Narration
Characteristic:
Some poems (such as Fairy Tale and The Amnesia Patient) present tragedy in the tone of narrative or allegory. The voice of the first person or narrator becomes the spokesperson for the deceased or an invocation of collective memory.
Poetic example: Fairy Tale turns the deaths of two twin girls into a dark fairy tale.
The poet’s tone is simultaneously that of a mourner and a witness.
II. Major Rhetorical Techniques and Guided Reading of Poetic Examples
1. Direct Condemnation and Imperative Syntax (short sentences, commands, enumeration)
Explanation of technique:
Brief and decisive sentences enumerate acts of violence. The tone carries urgency and a clear ethical accusation. Ambiguity and ornamentation are minimized in order to expose the concrete nature of violence.
Poetic example and interpretation: In To the Dictator:
“You can cut off my tongue
and turn me into a mute…
You can imprison me again and again…”
The repeated enumeration of “You can…” resembles a list of instruments of torture. This cold listing contrasts with the final passage of historical judgment, highlighting the smallness and absurdity of individual acts of tyranny before history. It functions both as accusation and consolation (a form of self-encouragement for the victims).
2. Irony and Metaphor: Using Everyday or Beautiful Images to Contrast Violence
Explanation of technique:
Apparently beautiful imagery or rational statements are used to wrap absurdity and cruelty, creating a cognitive gap for readers and generating ironic effect.
Poetic example and interpretation: In Hunger Strike:
“Some gods cannot be criticized
just as some things cannot be eaten.”
Political censorship is compared to “poison.” The poem further presents “hunger strike” as an absurd but safe option. The final line—
“so that one may become a tulip”
—romanticizes death as a “tulip,” ironically revealing that the suppression of speech ultimately results in the disappearance of life itself.
3. Personification and Objectification: Focusing on the Nation, Slogans, Tape Recorders, and Similar Objects
Explanation of technique:
Abstract entities (the nation, slogans, tape recorders, systems) are personified or treated as living objects so that their influence or culpability becomes concrete.
Poetic example and interpretation: In Message, Formosa is addressed as both a “lover” and a “suffering island.” The lover-like tone prays for the island’s peace, freedom, and democracy. By personifying the nation, the poem strengthens its emotional appeal.
In Slogan, slogans are treated as talismans or tools for practicing speech, revealing how slogans transform people into mechanical voices.
4. Allegory and Dark Fairy Tales: Narration that Conceals the Raw Violence of Events
Explanation of technique:
Real events or tragedies are wrapped in allegorical or fairy-tale form. This preserves narrative emotional power while allowing symbolic evasion of censorship and creating broader universality.
Poetic example and interpretation: Fairy Tale adopts the tone of a dark fairy tale to commemorate two female students. Through mythic and fairy-tale transformation, death becomes both sorrowful and sanctified, elevating individual political deaths into sacred symbols of collective memory.
5. Parallelism, Repetition, and Rhetorical Accumulation: Strengthening Emotion and Rhythm
Explanation of technique:
Repetition, recurring sentence structures, and parallel constructions intensify rhythm, reinforce the central theme, and produce recitative emotional pressure.
Poetic example and interpretation:
To the Dictator repeatedly uses “You can…”
Slogan repeats “Every slogan… / Within every slogan…”
Through repetition, readers are drawn into the mechanical chanting of collective voices, physically sensing its oppressive force.
6. Metaphor and Symbolism (death, disappearance, tape recorders, fierce dogs)
Explanation of technique:
Concrete symbols represent abstract concepts such as political violence, disappearance, and censorship, making experience visually perceptible.
Poetic example and interpretation:
In Disappearance, symbols such as “fierce dogs,” “flashlights,” and “inside the walls” depict the mechanisms of search and intimidation.
In The Amnesia Patient, the “tape recorder” symbolizes both the preservation and transmission of truth, while simultaneously exposing the logic through which power creates and eliminates enemies.
7. Ironic Ethical Judgment (historical judgment / self-mockery of power)
Explanation of technique:
Contemporary tyranny is placed within the framework of “historical judgment.” This functions both as consolation and warning.
Poetic example and interpretation: In the final passage of To the Dictator:
“Under the severe judgment of history
your anger is merely
a sneeze in the cold wind.”
By using the grand scale of history as an ethical measure, the violence of those in power is diminished by historical inevitability, completing a moral reversal.
III. Comprehensive Evaluation
1. Linguistic Strategy Combining Directness and Metaphor
Cheng Ching-Ming’s political poetry moves back and forth between direct accusation (such as enumerating acts of violence or imperative syntax) and metaphorical transformation (fairy tales and symbolism). This allows the poems to expose reality openly while maintaining poetic depth and multiplicity of meaning.
2. Clear Subject Position and Representative Voice
Although often beginning with the first person, the voice frequently expands into a representative of collective suffering or national tragedy. The poet’s ethical concern is unmistakably clear.
3. Diverse Rhetoric Serving Political Appeal
From personification and irony to allegory and symbolism, all rhetorical devices serve to amplify the voices of the oppressed, reveal mechanisms of power, or preserve collective memory.
4. Balance of Emotion and Rationality
The poems contain both passionate emotion (the pain of hunger strike or disappearance) and calm irony with historical judgment, enabling them to both move readers and persuade them intellectually.
III. Lyric Poetry
1. Narrative Perspective and Analysis of Grammatical Person
Cheng Ching-Ming’s lyric poetry displays a multi-layered quality of “self-voicing.”
He frequently begins with the first person “I,” forming a dialogic relationship with “you” (a lover, an addressee, the soul, or the era). The perspective shifts flexibly among self-reflection, dialogue between lovers, and philosophical meditation.
1. First-Person Confession — Direct Expression and Reflection of Inner Emotion
Poetic example: Harm
“Love is cruel, you said
I did not believe it
but now I understand.”
The poem opens with the inner monologue of “I,” with a sincere and direct tone. Through the first person, the poet responds to emotional experience, moving from doubt to understanding, revealing the bitterness and self-awareness of love.
Here the first person “I” is not the external image of a lyrical protagonist, but the inner consciousness through which emotion unfolds.
Poetic example: Please Forgive Me
“Please forgive me, my love
when I pick up the pen
I do not think of you.”
Through the inner confession of “I” to the “beloved,” the poem reveals the creator’s inner rupture between love and ideal. This confessional tone gives the lyrical subject moral depth and allows the writing of love to transcend private emotion and enter ethical and social dimensions.
2. Dialogic “I–You” Structure — Emotional Interaction within a World of Two
Poetic example: Night
“This is our moment
let us become the first two people.”
The first person “I” and second person “you (we)” together construct a closed space of time. This “you–I” dialogue is the most common form in Cheng Ching-Ming’s lyric poetry, symbolizing the interdependence of love and existence.
Through shared moments, the poet transforms the experience of love into cosmic metaphor:
“the moment when a match can illuminate everything”
—an experience both intimate and universal.
3. Third-Person Observation — The Calm Spectator and Insight into Human Nature
Poetic example: Mixed Chorus: An Observation of a Man
The narrator observes female images through the distanced perspective of “he / she,” examining contradiction and social constraint.
“She is accustomed to explaining love as incomprehensible words, as luxuries.”
The restrained and rational tone reveals a mature stage in which the poet moves from emotional lyricism to psychological observation of society.
Poetic example: A Woman’s Confession
Here the poem shifts to a female first-person narrative, revealing the self-dialectics and psychological complexity of gender roles.
By interweaving different grammatical voices, the poet forms a structure of “double voicing”, demonstrating a multifaceted vision of humanity, gender, and morality.
4. The Philosophical “I” — From Individual Emotion to Existential Reflection
Poetic example: Autumn Night
“If time is the black hole of death
when will you and I be drawn into it”
The poet juxtaposes love and death, extending the perspective from lovers’ dialogue to the level of cosmic philosophy.
“I” becomes both the one who feels and the one who contemplates. The experience of love becomes the starting point for reflecting on the meaning of life.
Poetic example: Time · Flower
“If time were a flower
it could be admired, poured out, and possessed.”
In this poem, the presence of “I” nearly disappears, transforming into the subject of poetic meditation. The perspective shifts from personal love toward the universal imagery of time, demonstrating the philosophical tendency of Cheng Ching-Ming’s later lyric poetry.
II. Major Rhetorical Techniques and Guided Reading of Poetic Examples
The lyrical poetry of Zheng Jiongming employs a wide variety of rhetorical techniques, often integrating symbolism, synesthesia, contrast, and metaphor, thereby making emotions concrete and vivid in imagery. The following are the major categories and analyses of poetic examples:
1. Personification of Objects and Metaphor (Fusion of Object and Self)
The poet often uses natural imagery to transform psychological states, allowing emotions to be externalized into concrete scenes.
Poetic Example: “Autumn Night”
“Blood-stained maple leaves make one excited / make one unable to fall asleep”
The autumn leaves are compared to being “blood-stained,” using visual color to correspond to emotional anxiety. In the latter part, “time is the black hole of death” further employs an image from cosmic physics as a metaphor for the endless spiral of love and death.
This type of objectification of thought transforms emotion from abstraction into a concrete poetic image.
Poetic Example: “Time · Flower”
“If time were a flower / it could be admired, confided in, and also possessed”
The poet uses a flower as a metaphor for time, objectifying the abstract concept of time so that readers may perceive the flow of life through the natural rhythm of “flowers blooming and withering.” This is a typical example of objectification—using imagery to convey philosophical reflections on life.
2. Symbolism and Metonymy (Spiritualization of Imagery)
Zheng Jiongming’s lyrical poems often reveal themes of love, time, and faith through symbolic objects.
Poetic Example: “The Last Love Song”
“Like a free vulture / flying over an unattainably high invisible wall”
The “vulture” symbolizes the freedom of the soul and the liberation of love, while the “wall” symbolizes worldly constraints. Through symbolic contrast, the poet transforms the farewell of love into a form of spiritual transcendence.
Poetic Example: “Please Forgive Me”
“My poems will follow them / and enter the vast sea of time”
“The sea of time” symbolizes the eternal flow of poetry and ideals. The poet places personal love within a broader horizon of history and human suffering, symbolizing the moral mission of poetry.
3. Repetition and Gradation (Rhythmic Techniques for Emotional Intensification)
Repetition is a rhythmic characteristic of Zheng Jiongming’s love poems, used to emphasize the lingering and contradictory nature of emotion.
Poetic Example: “Understanding”
“If you do not understand me now / then you will never be able to understand me”
The repetition at the beginning and end forms a circular structure. In meaning, the tone shifts from supplication to assertion, presenting the emotional transition from expectation to despair. Repetition gives the poem a tragic sense of fate within a conversational rhythm.
Poetic Example: “The Last Love Song”
The phrase “let me love you once more” is repeated. Each recurrence adds a new emotional layer—from longing to transcendence, from real love to ideal love.
4. Synesthesia and Contrast (Interweaving of Sensation and Idea)
The poet interweaves different senses to create emotional resonance that transcends a single perception.
Poetic Example: “Night”
“A single match will illuminate the moment”
Light and time intersect to merge auditory and visual sensations, symbolizing the eternity contained within a fleeting moment of love. Synesthesia makes the scene both concrete and poetic.
Poetic Example: “Autumn Night”
The “bathing of moonlight” is combined with “reading poetry aloud,” merging visual imagery (silver moonlight) with auditory imagery (the sound of recitation), thus forming a tranquil poetic atmosphere.
5. Symbolic and Allegorical Structure (Extension of Love and Existence)
Zheng Jiongming’s love poems often allegorize love, using personal emotion to symbolize life and history.
Poetic Example: the final section of “The Last Love Song”
“Through the immense current of time / all joy and death will be judged”
The story of love is elevated to the macro level of “history and resurrection,” giving private love religious and national implications, combining both romantic and epic qualities.
III. Comprehensive Evaluation
Varied Perspectives Unified by the Relationship Between Self and the Other
Although the narrative perspectives in Zheng Jiongming’s lyrical poetry are diverse (confession, dialogue, observation), the core consistently revolves around “the understanding and estrangement between the self and the other,” presenting the loneliness and search for connection in modern human emotion.
1. Rhetorical Style: From the Concretization of Emotion to the Abstraction of Philosophy
Through natural imagery and symbolic objects as mediators, he allows themes such as love, time, and existence to possess both vivid imagery and philosophical reflection.
2. Linguistic Characteristics: Sincere Yet Philosophical
Compared with the passionate tone of political poetry and the allegorical quality of object-descriptive poetry, the language of his lyrical poems is calmer and clearer, containing philosophical insight and self-reflection.
3. Thematic Development: Expansion from Love → Existence → History
Zheng Jiongming’s lyrical poetry gradually transcends romantic love between men and women, turning toward reflections on life, history, and ethics, revealing the deepening intellectual spirit of the poet as both a writer and a thinker.
IV. Character Poems
Character poems constitute an important type situated between his “social poetry” and “lyrical poetry.” Through concrete figures, they reflect the solitude of an era and the dilemmas of existence. The following is a complete analysis.
1. Analysis of Narrative Perspective and Person
Zheng Jiongming’s character poems are mostly presented from either a first-person perspective or the viewpoint of a third-person observer.
Through dialogue with or contemplation of the characters by “I,” he reveals social indifference and the absurdity of life.
The perspective shifts between internal identification and external observation, creating dramatic tension within the poem.
1. First Person: Entering the Role and Internalizing the Character’s Life Experience
Poetic Example: “Beggar”
“I walk in a dark alley / no one looks at me once”
“I suddenly die at the doorway of a shop / yet attract crowds of onlookers”
This poem takes “I” as the subject, with the poet directly entering the perspective of the beggar.
The narration throughout the poem is extremely concise, yet every line carries the despair of existence and the indifference of society.
The repetition of “no one looks at me once” forms a cold rhythm, strengthening the loneliness of those abandoned by society.
This first-person representational technique makes the “beggar” no longer an Other, but another projection of “I”—
a self-embodiment of the poet’s conscience.
2. Third-Person Observer: Revealing Absurdity Through Detachment
Poetic Example: “Misunderstanding”
“That performer, covered in sweat / in the lively square / performs his stunt”
This poem adopts an objective third-person description, narrating the performance of a street performer from an observational perspective.
The poet deliberately maintains distance, using the line “I thought he was using another perspective / to understand this world” as the turning point,
revealing the dislocation between “ideal and reality” and between “poetic vision and absurdity.”
Here, the “misunderstanding” is not merely the narrator’s misjudgment, but also symbolizes humanity’s confusion regarding art and the meaning of existence.
3. First-Person “I–You” Dialogue: The Dialectic of Morality and Truth
Poetic Example: “Magician”
“If you truly can transform things / as you do on stage / then please transform back / exactly what I have lost”
This poem unfolds as a dialogue in which “I” addresses “you (the magician).”
The narrative perspective directly becomes an ethical interrogation:
the poet questions the boundaries between power, deception, and truth.
This “I–You” relationship is not only a dialogue between characters but also symbolizes a dialogue between the poet and the age—
the “magician” symbolizes those authorities in real society who are adept at creating illusions.
4. Collective “We”: Witness of a Shared Destiny
Poetic Example: “The Tightrope Walker”
“In the sky of escape / we are a group of tightrope walkers driven away”
This poem uses “we,” forming a collective narrative perspective.
The poet no longer observes individuals in isolation but merges with the shared destiny of exiles and dreamers forced into displacement.
“We incubate the remaining love and dreams / upon the swaying rope”—
this is a highly symbolic collective confession, revealing the existential condition of modern people being forced to live between cliff and abyss.
II. Rhetorical Techniques and Guided Reading of Poetic Examples
The rhetorical characteristics of Zheng Jiongming’s character poems lie in the coexistence of concretization and allegorization. He often uses extremely concise language and austere imagery to shape symbolic figures; every character carries the implication of an “allegory of the age.”
1. Personification of Objects (Objectification of Characters) — Using Imagery to Intensify the Tragic Sense of Life
Poetic Example: “Beggar”
“I lie on a bench in the park / no one looks at me once”
The “beggar” is placed within the world of objects, juxtaposed with the “bench” to form a static scene.
He is no longer a person but becomes part of the environment.
This kind of objectifying description (the human as object, the object as human) causes the poem to present the tragedy of dehumanization in modern society.
Until the final lines—
“I suddenly die at the doorway of a shop / yet attract crowds of onlookers”
After death, the person instead becomes an object to be watched, overturning the boundary between life and thingness.
2. Irony (Irony) — Revealing the Absurdity of Human Nature and Social Indifference
Poetic Example: “Misunderstanding”
The tension of the entire poem arises from the ironic contrast between “I thought” and “in fact.”
“I thought he was using another perspective / to understand this world; however / his companion said / he only wanted to test his strength / to see whether he could lift the Earth.”
The poet first presents a noble interpretation (understanding the world), and then overturns it with an absurd fact (lifting the Earth).
This irony exposes the confusion in humanity’s search for meaning:
ideal and reality intertwine to become a farcical performance.
3. Symbolism (Allegorization of Characters) — Using Occupations or Roles to Symbolize Social Conditions
Poetic Example: “Magician”
The “magician” is not a concrete individual but a symbol of a “producer of illusions.”
“Do not always remain behind the curtain / spending the entire day thinking / about how / to obtain greater satisfaction and self-gratification / from the applause of deceived audiences”
This passage reveals the indulgence of those in power or performers in false applause. The “magician” symbolizes the entire fabricated structure of society, while “I” symbolizes the authentic soul imprisoned by illusions.
Through symbolic techniques, the entire poem forms a profound critique of deception in reality.
4. Synesthesia and Contrast — Creating a Dramatic Atmosphere of Suspension
Poetic Example: “The Tightrope Walker”
“We incubate the remaining love and dreams / upon the swaying rope”
The “swaying rope” simultaneously possesses kinetic and visual tension.
Love and dreams are nurtured in the “heights,” yet they may also “fall into the deep valley of history.”
Up and down, light and heavy, life and death form powerful contrasts.
Synesthesia and contrast together create a sense of suspension, symbolizing the precarious condition of modern existence.
5. Repetition and Rhythm — The Suppression and Explosion of Emotion
Poetic Example: “Beggar”
“No one looks at me once” is repeated three times.
The rhythm of the language resembles an incantation, forming a cold poetic cadence.
This repetition makes the sense of isolation audibly tangible and intensifies the sorrow of social indifference.
III. Comprehensive Evaluation
1. Strategy of Perspective
Zheng Jiongming’s character poems combine two perspectives: identification and observation.
He is both the spokesperson for the suffering (as in “Beggar”), a calm observer (as in “Misunderstanding”), and the “I” who raises moral questions toward power (as in “Magician”).
2. Character Construction
Each character is extremely condensed—
- the “beggar” symbolizes the excluded,
- the “performer” symbolizes humanity’s misjudgment of meaning,
- the “magician” symbolizes the producer of illusions of power,
- the “tightrope walker” symbolizes the shared anxiety and drifting of modern people.
3. Rhetorical Style
The core dynamic of the poems is formed by concise language + symbolic scenes + ironic reversal.
With highly restrained language, Zheng Jiongming creates ethical allegories of profound emotional power.
4. Thematic Consciousness
Character poems are not merely about individuals; rather, they use human figures as mirrors—
reflecting the falseness of the age, the numbness of society, and the absurdity of human existence.
V. Self-Reflective Poetry
This poem, “Questions and Answers in the Darkness,” is one of Zheng Jiongming’s works that is profoundly characterized by self-reflection and moral consciousness.
It is not merely an inner monologue of a poet but also an allegorical poem carrying implications of self-judgment and reflection upon the age.
Within the poem appears a dialogue between the poet and “conscience” or “the voice of the age,” forming a dual reflection on both ethics and poetics.
I. Main Consciousness: The Poet’s Conscience in Self-Interrogation
The narrative form of the entire poem is “an interrogation within a dream.”
This structure resembles religious confession or a courtroom trial.
The poet is awakened by “an extremely severe voice.”
This voice may be an external authority, or it may be the embodiment of inner conscience.
The key line in the poem—
“I have not fulfilled the responsibility of a poet.”
This sentence is the core of the entire poem.
It reveals that the poet believes he has not yet completed the mission entrusted to him by the age. Therefore, the central consciousness of the poem is:
“A poet should speak for the age through poetry and remain honest to oneself.”
The poet denies himself the title of “poet,” not out of modesty but out of anxiety of conscience.
This is a profound existential reflection—
in a society of repression and fear, can a poet still speak honestly?
And if the poet cannot express the pain of the age, can he still be worthy of being called a “poet”?
II. Inner Significance
1. The Symbolism of “Interrogation in a Dream”
The dream is the space of the poet’s subconscious.
The “severe voice” symbolizes the inner examiner—possibly history, truth, or the god of poetry.
The poet is forced to stand in “a dark corner inside the house.” This place represents the fear and shame of the “self” when facing “truth.” This dream interrogation is in fact a judgment of the soul.
In terms of form, the poem adopts a question-and-answer structure (Q&A). The language is austere and the rhythm is brief and abrupt, as if it were a record of an internal interrogation within the poet. This method of writing gives the poem a theatrical tension.
2. The Ethical Meaning of “The Responsibility of the Poet”
“The responsibility of the poet is to write out the voice of the heart of his era.”
This sentence clearly states Zheng Jiongming’s definition of and belief in poetry.
He refuses to regard poetry as merely lyrical expression or the display of technique. Instead, he regards it as a moral mission and a historical testimony.
Therefore, “Questions and Answers in the Darkness” is not merely a confession but also a manifesto of the poet.
Using the first person, Zheng Jiongming directly confronts the ethical anxiety of the “role of the poet,” reflecting the dilemma faced by poets during the period of martial law in Taiwan—
the painful struggle between writing and not writing, speaking and not speaking, silence and resistance.
3. The Tension Between “Honesty” and “Scruple”
“Is there any scruple?”
“Yes, including personal, political, and social ones…”
This exchange exposes the poet’s predicament without concealment.
The poet acknowledges the existence of fear and self-censorship—“scruple” is precisely the poetic dilemma produced under the pressure of real power. Yet he still answers, “I am trying my best.”
This reflects a spirit of seeking truth amid fear and searching for light within darkness.
The poet knows that he “has not yet fulfilled his mission,” yet he does not evade it.
Thus, “Questions and Answers in the Darkness” transcends confession and becomes a poem of poetic awakening.
4. The Disappearance of the “Severe Voice” — Symbolizing the Temporary Withdrawal of Conscience and History
At the end it reads:
“The severe voice disappeared, leaving behind the still-frightened me, standing in the room, unable to fall asleep for a long time.”
The “disappearance” does not mean an ending; it means that conscience temporarily withdraws. The poet’s inability to fall asleep signifies that conscience has already taken root deeply within his heart.
He will continue to be questioned by the same problem:
“Have you truly written the voice of the heart of the age?”
This ending preserves suspense. It is both the endless judgment of the poet’s conscience and a suggestion of the eternal unease of creation.
III. Poetic Implications: Self-Reflection as the Foundation of Poetry
In this poem Zheng Jiongming reveals the reason for the existence of poetry:
Poetry does not serve beautiful rhetoric; it exists in order to awaken the human heart.
The poet’s greatest enemy is not power, but his own cowardice and silence.
Through the question-and-answer structure he expresses the inner ethics of poetry, transforming the poem into a dialogue of conscience in which one questions and answers oneself.
This type of reflective poetry continues the spiritual tradition of Western modern poets (such as T. S. Eliot and Rainer Maria Rilke), while also possessing political implications rooted in Taiwan’s own historical context.
Conclusion
“Questions and Answers in the Darkness” is a poem about how a poet becomes a poet.
It allows readers to see the soul of the poet struggling in darkness—he is both fearful and honest, both weak and awakened.
Within this dreamlike interrogation, Zheng Jiongming completes an ethical reckoning with himself:
“The responsibility of the poet is to speak the words that the age does not dare to speak.”
Therefore, this poem is not only a reflective poem but also a confession of faith in poetry.
Conclusion: Zheng Jiongming’s Artistic Contributions and Achievements
1. Transforming “Concern for Reality” and “Humanitarianism” into the Central Axis of Poetics
Explanation of the Contribution:
Zheng Jiongming’s poetry has long focused on social injustice, labor hardship, marginalized people, and issues of democracy through plain yet powerful language. This creates a poetic stance that combines sympathy with criticism. As a result, his poetry is both an expression of emotion and a testimony of society.
Evidence from Works:
Object poems and political poems (such as “Sweet Potato,” “Dog,” “To the Dictator,” and “Hunger Strike”) present political and social anxiety through concrete imagery and the perspective of the oppressed. The language is direct yet rich in symbolism.
2. Emphasis on and Practice of “The Social Responsibility of Poetry” (Poetics and Action in Parallel)
Explanation of the Contribution:
In his poems he repeatedly raises the ethical responsibility of poets toward their era (for example, “Questions and Answers in the Darkness”). In publishing and organizational work, he founded magazines, established foundations, and organized poetry festivals, turning the “responsibility of poetry” into concrete social practice.
This dual track of poetics and organization operating in parallel constitutes one of his major contributions.
3. Promoting the Construction of the Literary Sphere of Southern Taiwan and Nurturing Local Literary Talent
Explanation of the Contribution:
From the editorial and publishing work of Literary World to Taiwan Literature, he created an important platform for publishing local realism and native literature. Through these platforms he supported many writers and stimulated literary vitality in southern Taiwan.
This has had a long-term impact on both the regional diversity of Taiwanese literature and academic research.
4. Diversity and Strategic Style in Poetry: Integrating Object Poetry, Political Poetry, and Lyric Poetry
Explanation of the Contribution:
His creative work crosses multiple poetic forms—object poetry (using objects as metaphors and personification), new object realism (objective observation), lyric poetry, and reflective poetry (inner ethical reflection). This forms a modern poetic practice capable of shifting between different linguistic registers and audiences.
His ability to write both individual emotion and collective events gives his work lasting reading value.
Evidence from Works:
Among the poems you uploaded are diverse examples such as “Sweet Potato” and “Dog” (object poetry, first-person protest), “Lime Kiln” and “Garbage” (new object-style social observation), “Questions and Answers in the Darkness” (reflective poetry), and “Autumn Night” (lyrical philosophical reflection).
5. Poetic Commemoration of “Collective Memory” and Victims (Poetry as Social Documentation)
Explanation of the Contribution:
In several political and character poems he records events such as disappearances, the deaths of students, violence, and trials in poetic form. These poems transform poetry into a carrier of public memory with commemorative and awakening functions.
Thus, beyond literary value, his poetry also possesses moral and historical significance.
Evidence from Works:
For example, “Fairy Tale” commemorates the death of a schoolgirl, and “Amnesia Patient” uses the image of a tape recorder preserving the truth.
III. Specific Achievements (Awards, Positions, and Publications)
He has served as the president of the Li Poetry Society and the chairman of the Taiwan PEN Association, and has also acted as the publisher of Literary World and Taiwan Literature as well as the chairman of the board of the Taiwan Literature Foundation. For a long period he has promoted public affairs and publishing related to Taiwanese literature.
Major awards (recorded in various written sources over the years):
the Li Poetry Award, the Wu Zhuoliu Literature Award, the Fengyi Literature Award, the Nanying Literature Award, the Kaohsiung City Literary and Arts Award, the Wu Yongfu Literature Award, and others (including multiple regional and national literary recognitions).
Publications / representative poetry collections (selected):
The Way Home, The Imagination of Tragedy, Song of the Sweet Potato, The Last Love Song, Selected Works of Zheng Jiongming, Trio, Gazing, Reflections on Death, My Longing Is Not a Brilliant Spark, among others. In addition, he edited, published, and organized numerous issues of literary periodicals, accumulating a substantial record of publishing achievements.
Summary
Zheng Jiongming’s artistic contribution lies in the integration of individual conscience and public responsibility. With sincere and diverse poetic language he writes about the suffering and humanity of Taiwanese society, while at the same time, through practical work such as editing, publishing, curating literary events, and operating a literary foundation, he has built platforms to support local literature. This makes him a dual model of “poet + promoter of literature.”
In terms of poetry, he skillfully employs object poetry, personification, allegory, and the calm observational method of new object realism, allowing poetry to function both as lyrical expression and as testimony. In terms of organization, his magazine publishing and literary activities have strengthened the vitality of southern and local literature.
“I am a poet holding a scalpel in my hand. While searching for the language of love, I thrust the knife into the shameful parts of filthy reality, allowing the festering blood to flow out and be purified. This is my destiny as a poet, and I am willing to bear it.”
These words are Zheng Jiongming’s heartfelt declaration in the postscript of his recently published modern poetry anthology My Longing Is Not a Brilliant Spark (2022), and they serve appropriately as the concluding statement of this thesis.
Chinese References
Li Kui-hsien (editor) (2001). Thirty Years of Selected Poems of the Li Poetry Society. Taipei: Li Poetry Society.
Chen Fang-ming (1993). A History of New Taiwanese Literature. Taipei: Linking Publishing Company.
Chen Yi-zhi (1996). “Local Writing in Taiwanese Modern Poetry as Seen from the Li Poetry Society.” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly, 25(6), 45–67.
Li Min-yong (2007). “Political Poetry and the Ethics of Poetry.” Taiwan Literature, 3(2), 12–23.
Ye Shitao (1990). “The Awakening of Southern Literature from the Perspective of the Magazine Literary World.” Literary World, 4(3), 1–7.
Hong Zi-wei (2018). “The Realist Poetic View and Social Consciousness of the Postwar Generation—With Zheng Jiongming’s Poetry as the Core.” Journal of Taiwan Literature Studies, 32, 55–80.
Wu Sheng (2009). “From Land to Soul—Ethics and Reflection among Postwar Taiwanese Poets.” Li Poetry Journal, Issue 157, 9–18.
Zheng Jiongming’s Poetry Collections and Monographs
1. Poetry Collections
The Way Home, May 1971, Li Poetry Society.
The Imagination of Tragedy, March 1976, Li Poetry Society.
Song of Desolation, March 1981, Chunhui.
The Last Love Song, February 1986, Li Poetry Society.
Selected Poems of Zheng Jiongming, December 1999, Tainan County Cultural Center.
Trio, June 2008, Chunhui.
Collected Works of Zheng Jiongming, July 2009, National Museum of Taiwan Literature.
Gazing, June 2015, Chunhui.
Reflections on Death, April 2018, Chunhui.
Existence and Gazing: Selected Poems of Zheng Jiongming, April 2019, Chunhui.
The Birth of Poetry, March 2023, Chunhui.
My Longing Is Not a Brilliant Spark, October 2022, Yushan Publishing.
Zheng Jiongming (2012), “From Physician to Poet—My Creative Journey.” Taiwan Literature, 8(1), 5–10.
Zheng Jiongming (2019), The Boundary Between Reality and Poetry. Kaohsiung: Taiwan Literature Foundation.
Li Poetry Society (editor) (2015). Fifty Years of Selected Poems of the Li Poetry Society. Taipei: Li Poetry Society.
Kaohsiung City Bureau of Cultural Affairs (2020). The Context of Southern Literature: From the Li Poetry Society to Taiwan Literature. Kaohsiung: Published by the Kaohsiung City Bureau of Cultural Affairs.
