NTU Press published the poetry compilation The Poetic World of TuKuo-ch'ing as a new addition to its Literature of Modernism Series in September. Over 700 pages in length, this hardcover book features 301 poems composed by the poet scholar TuKuo-ch'ing. The compilation demonstrates the author's talent in theory and practice as well as his integration of poetics and creativity in the pursuit of the art of poetry.

The compilation bears witness to Tu's love of poetry for poetry's sake. His poetic works achieve the quality of transcending the limits of place and period, making them accessible to readers of different times, languages, and cultures. The book has four main sections. The first section presents Tu's poetic theory, while the second and third address the corporeal world and the emotional world. The final section explores the art of poetry.

Tuwanders through the world and makes idealistic reversals in his poetry. His poetic theory is based on an integration of objectivity and symbolism at its core, and is a fusion of mutually intersecting approaches based on object and emotion. While most of Tu’s poetic compositions consist of love poems, he has also created works of incisive intellectual criticism that are spiced with satire and address political issues and historical incidents that reflect the realities of Taiwanese society.

The author, who graduated from NTU with a degree in foreign languages and literatures in 1963, is currently a professor of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies as well as the director of the Center for Taiwan Studiesat the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tu's research interests include Chinese literature, Chinese and Western poetics and literary theories, Taiwan literature, and comparative literature of the East and the West.

As both an author of Chinese poetry and a translator of Western literature into Chinese, Tu founded the journal Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series in 1996. The periodical is dedicated to introducing Taiwanese literature to English readers, and strives to make Taiwanese literature available to the international community while encouraging the study of Taiwanese literature from international perspectives.