Tseng Hisang-yun (whose penname is Li Yun-hao), an alumnus of English Dept., won the first place in the Category of Prose of the 22nd Liang Shih-chiu Literary Award. Among the three first-place winners, Tseng is not only the youngest, but also the only one from Taiwan. The awarding ceremony was held on Nov. 3 on the first floor of the building of the Council for Cultural Affairs, where Tseng got a cup and 70,000-NTD prize. Tseng currently is doing his military service, so he especially took a day off from his troop in Kaoshiung and came to Taipei to receive the prize. “To me, a young man who wants to dedicate himself to literary creation, this award is really a great encouragement and recognition,” Tseng said happily.

Tseng has won many literary awards, such as the First Prize in the Category of Chinese Free Verse of Cardinal Tien Literary Award, the Fine Work Prize in the Category of Chinese Free Verse of the Wu Zhuo-liu Literary Award, and the Suggestion Prize in the Category of Fiction of the Huangsi Literary Award. He also won the Fine Work Prize in the Category of Chinese Free Verse of the 24th Wu-Fu Kang Literature Awards and the Suggestion Prize in the Category of Fiction of the 25th Wu-Fu Kang Literature Awards. In the work that makes him win Liang Shih-chiu Literary Award, Tseng uses realistic way to describe how his father, after getting the rare disease, had an indifferent and alienated relationship with his family. Not until Tseng got sick did he begin to understand his father’s suffering and pain from the illness in those years. Through this work, he reveals his regret and sympathy toward his father.

Tseng explains that near 90 percent of the work content reflects his real life. “Tracing the fragments of the past and the feelings toward real life, I keep digging the most genuine affection to my father from the bottom of my heart. Hence, I think this work is a kind of my confession,” said Tseng. One of the judges Chen I-chih comments on Tseng’s work that, “Every memory fragment has realistic scene and down-to-earth plot. With the delicate writing skills, Tseng inspects his deepest feeling toward his father. From misunderstanding and hating his father to experiencing the sickness in person, he created a work that makes readers feel the sadness of life.”

Tseng just graduated from TKU this year. He pointed out that the free spirit of TKU stimulated him to think in diverse ways, which helps his writing a lot. Tseng said that he loves to read literary works. He often stayed at the library reading and then forgot to attend the class. “When I was a junior, I joined the Cardinal Tien writing workshop, which evoked my writing potentiality,” Tseng said. “I will keep working on literary creation,” Tseng expressed firmly. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )