Poetic Memories and Others

In 1970, Lee Yew Seng published his first poetry collection, "Birds and Others," in Malaysia. "Poetic Memories and Others" follows him after a long absence from the Malaysian Chinese literary scene. This collection primarily consists of essays on Malaysian Chinese literature written over the past decade. The book is divided into three volumes. The first volume features essays that range from nostalgic to reminiscent, reminiscing about the past, and revisiting old books. While these are largely personal, they also hold some degree of literary historical significance. The second volume primarily consists of reviews and prefaces. The author states, "My reviews and prefaces are largely interpretive criticism, and my commitment to the historicization of interpretation is evident throughout. My goal is simply to explore the subtle meanings of texts within my theoretical framework, prioritizing the ideology of form and the political implications of literature—this can be considered one of my ways of expressing my views through poets and writers." The third volume includes two interviews, a conversation, and a speech transcript. These four essays are included in the book primarily because their content can, to some extent, illuminate certain concerns expressed in the first two volumes. Li Youcheng considered "Poetic Memories and Others" as a homecoming story. He said: "It was an accidental acquisition, but it was not easy to come by. Therefore, I will not throw away the old curtain, but it is a small gift for returning home."

Li Youcheng

Born in Pantai, Kedah, Malaysia, he graduated from the Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University and received a PhD in Comparative Literature from National Taiwan University. He is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, an Associate Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University, and the Executive Director of the Outstanding Talent Development Foundation. He has served as Director of the Institute of European and American Studies, Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal European and American Studies, Convenor of the Foreign Literature Division of the National Science Council (now the Ministry of Science and Technology), Advisory Committee Member of the Humanities Division, President of the Comparative Literature Association of the Republic of China, and Adjunct Professor at National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University. His research interests include African and Asian American literature, contemporary British fiction, literary theory, and cultural criticism. His major publications include Multicultural Trajectories of Literature, In the Age of Theory, Polyphonic Variations in Literature, Transcendence: African American Literature and Cultural Criticism, In Front of the Gandhi Statue: My London Notes, Others, Diaspora, Memory, and the poetry collections Birds and Others and Time.