 Essayist, cultural critic, professor of literature. Daughter to a refugee family from China, Lung Yingtai was born in Taiwan in 1952. She studied English at National Cheng Kung University, went to the USA where she studied American Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and was awarded her PhD in English at Kansas State University in 1982.
Lung Yingtai’s critical writings were considered to have greatly contributed to the democratisation of Taiwan in the 1980’s and to the spread of her influence to greater China. The book of social-political criticism, The Wild Fire, published in December 1985 during the KMT control, made the record sale of 24 printings within 21 days and is considered a landmark event in the process of Taiwan democratization. Her writings are published simultaneously in six areas: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, China and the USA. Writing extremely critically yet elegantly on topics such as civil society and human rights, drawing references from the Taiwanese experience with democracy, Lung’s influence in China is unique. Her open letter to Hu Jintao, written in 2006 in protest against the closing down of a major journal in Beijing, is considered to have produced critical effect on the Party decision to reinstate the journal 3 weeks later. European newspapers have also featured articles by Lung Yingtai since the nineties (including in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Tagesanzeiger, taz, and Dagens Nyheter).
Lung Yingtai was Cultural Minister of Taipei (1999-2003). In this position, she launched a conservation project, which transformed many old, dilapidated buildings in Taipei into museums, artist villages and literature houses. Her endeavor of city planning incorporating cultural aspirations has become a much-quoted model in other Chinese cities.
Leaving the ministry of culture in 2003, Lung Yingtai became guest professor at Hong Kong University’s Journalism and Media Studies Center. She is now Distinguished Fellow in Humanities at Hong Kong University.
Lung Yingtai has published more than 20 books. Besides the novel Fallen in Heidelberg (1995) and Take it Easy, My Children, a collection of short stories (1994), she has also published many collections of critical essays on culture and society.
In 2005, together with a dozen intellectuals and business leaders, Lung founded the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation which promotes education in global citizenship and cultural activism. (from Lettre International Berlin)
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