Hsu Hui-Chih, born in Taoyuan, Taiwan in 1966 and graduated from National Taipei University of Technology with a degree in chemical engineering. He made his name as a successful poet and writer at a young age, receiving numerous literary awards – including the prestigious Golden Tripod Award. He began a career in editing at one of Taiwan’s leading newspapers, Liberty Times and later became the editor-in-chief of Unitas Magazine. He currently serves as the president of Route Culture Co. Ltd. and the director of the board of the National Culture and Arts Foundation.
Hsu’s artwork is literature-oriented based and the development of Chinese calligraphy art. It is an integration of poet’s sensibility and rationality, as well as a personal reflection from transcribing Buddhist sutras. In Hsu’s creation, there is a manifestation of literary pictures, which demonstrates individual emotions and contemporary consciousness significantly. He uses ink primarily and experiments with different kinds of media, such as acrylic and mineral pigments, to enrich the artistic pictures and concepts. Recently, Hsu actively participated in international art fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, Taipei Dangdai, and Art Taipei. His solo exhibitions include “Dharma Offering of Ink: Solo Exhibition by Hsu Hui-Chih” at the Fo Guang Yuan Main Art Gallery in 2019, “Flowers Leave No Stains on a Body, a Fragment of Stone Flying Over; The Zen of Poetic Thoughts: An Exhibition of HSU Hui-Chih” at Liang Gallery in 2022, and “Crossing the Seas of Ink: HSU Hui-Chih Solo Exhibition” at Yun Fei Fan Museum in 2022. He was also invited to participate in the “Between Earth & the Sea: The Spiritual Art of Our Times” group exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 2020 as part of the “Word, Therapy” plan.
As a writer, Hsu has published numerous poetry and prose books. His poetry publications include Sunlight Beehive (1990), Book of Reincarnation (2002), Sailing to Formosa: A Poetic Companion to Taiwan (co-edited with Göran Malmqvist & Michelle Yeh, 2005), The Lost Khata: A Collection of Hsu Hui-chih’s audio poems (2006), The Deer’s Sorrows (Japanese translation, 2006), and the most recent Don’t Gently Wander Into that Sorrowful Night (2020). His prose works include Eyes, Ears, Noses, and Tongues (1993), May My Heart Be Like the Ocean (2018), and The Flowers Have Fallen Asleep Just Now (2019). In 1994, he wrote a children’s book titled The Star’s Exercise Book.
