Li Kuei-Hsien

Life & Legacy

Li Kuei-hsien (Chinese: 李魁賢; pinyin: Lǐ Kuíxián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Khoe-hiân; 19 June 1937 – 15 January 2025) was a Taiwanese author, poet, cultural critic, translator, and inventor, born in Taihoku during the period of Japanese rule. He mainly wrote poetry, but also provided reviews and translations.
Li began writing poems in 1953. He is noted for writing extended verse in Taiwanese Hokkien and represents an influential figure in the Taiwanese literature movement. Li's work today appears in multi-volume sets of collected poems published in 2001, 2002, and 2003. His "February 28th Incident Requiem" was set to music in 2008 by composer Fan-Long Ko. Translations of Li's poems have been published in Japan, Korea, Russia, New Zealand, Mongolia, India, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada. Li has also translated poems and edited collections of modern poems from Italy and other European sources.
Li authored Columbarium and Others and Selected Poems of Li Kuei-hsien. He died in Taipei on 15 January 2025, at the age of 87.