Speaker's Biography

余光中教授祖籍福建永春，母鄉江蘇常州，1928年生於南京，抗戰時期在重慶讀中學。先在南大與廈大就學，後在台灣大學外文系畢業。1959年獲愛奧華大學文藝碩士。曾任台北師大、政大外文系教授，1974至1985在香港中文大學中文系任教。1985年 迄今定居高雄，在國立中山大學任教。現任該校榮休教授。

擅詩、散文、評論、翻譯，自稱為其「四度空間」。出版專書逾60種。詩作如〈鄉愁〉、〈鄉愁四韻〉，散文如〈聽聽那冷雨〉、〈我的四個假想敵〉等廣泛收入大陸及台港之語文課本。

自1992年起，常回大陸講學，曾獲頒20多所大學客座教授，並任北京大學與澳門大學之駐校詩人、作家。其他所獲榮譽包括香港中文大學、臺灣政治大學、中山大學、澳門大學之榮譽博士；霍英東成就獎，2004年傳媒大獎之散文家獎，珠海北師大名譽 文學院長等多項。

Born in Nanjing in 1928, Professor Yu first studied foreign languages at Jinling University in 1947 and transferred to Xiamen University in 1949 when he started writing poems. During the civil war, Professor Yu flied to Hong Kong with his family and in 1950 settled in Taiwan. There he continued his university education and graduated from Taiwan University in 1952. After obtaining a Master's Degree in Fine Arts from Iowa State University, USA, in 1959, he returned to Taiwan and taught at Taiwan Normal University. As a Fulbright Scholar, he visited and gave lectures in the USA twice, in 1964 and 1969. In 1972, Professor Yu became the Chairman of the Department of English of Chengchi University, Taiwan. He joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1974 as Reader at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature. In 1985, he returned to Taiwan and became Dean of the College of Liberal Arts of National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan and is currently the Professor Emeritus of National Sun Yat-sen University.

Professor Yu is a writer of great influence, especially resourceful in poetry and prose. His poetry crystallizes his feelings and his love for the motherland; and it captures, reflects and expresses the life of a modern society. Professor Yu also writes critiques, edits and translates. A prolific writer active in literary creative work for over 40 years, Professor Yu enjoys high reputation in literary circles and has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes and honours, including the National Award for Literature in poetry, the Wu San-lian Award in prose and four times the Best Book of the Year by United Daily of Taiwan (1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000).