A series of good news got from Dept. of Chinese. In the ninth Nantou Yushan Literature Award, Hou Yu Lung (Ph.D graduate student of Dept. of Chinese), won the classic poem champion with fifty thousand NT dollars for his work “Reflection on Climbing Jade Mt.” Wu Chun Nan (master graduate student of Dept. of Chinese) won classic poem honorable mention from his work “On Tze En Tower near Sun Moon Lake.” Chang Hsiao Huai, another master graduate student, won the short novel honorable mention from her work “Love Flavor,” which has been published and collected in a book.

Yushan Literature Awards are given to writers and artists whose works feature culture, customs, and landscape of Nantou county. The classic poem champion holder, Hou Yu Lung, used to study master program in National Chi Nan University, so he projected a lot of local feelings into his work. He likes painting and observes the landscape carefully. His work reflects the characteristic of “painting in poetry and poetry in painting,” and wins the judge’s favor. He said that “ Wu Chun Nan and I have the same advisor Dr. Chen Wen Hua, from whom we learned tone and rhymes of classical poetry.”

Wu Chun Nan depicts his emotional responses to his visits to Sun Moon Lake, Che Cheng, and Jiji. He indicates that “there is small performance space for the classic poems in Taiwan. Yushan Literature Award is one of the few government-held competition without limiting zones. It’s great to win the award.”

Chang Hsiao Huai has won the 2007 National Taiwan Literature Camp Creation Award before. She is fascinated by essence oil and soap, and takes “smell” as a channel to record her daily life. Thus, it is the source of her work “Love Flavor.” She expresses that “Every time winning the award is both an affirmation and a pressure. There is still a lot of knowledge for me to learn and to write.” (Shelley Tan)