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Yu Ouyang Yu Ouyang i(A19154 works by) (a.k.a. 欧阳昱; Ouyang Yu)
Also writes as: Richard O'Young ; Bin Bin ; Zuo Yu ; Ouyang Xiu ; 'Ouyang Malley'
Born: Established: 1955 Huangzhou,
c
China,
c
East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: Apr 1991
Heritage: Chinese
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Works By

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1 Exegesis i "Every", Yu Ouyang , poetry
1 y separately published work icon The White Cockatoo Flowers : Stories Yu Ouyang , Yarraville : Transit Lounge , 2024 27281130 2024 selected work short story

'‘He looked down at his watch and saw that the long hand was overlapping the short, pointing towards twelve. The old year had passed and the new year had begun. He was swept by a feeling of loss and attachment to a past that was no longer there: If I were in China now, I would be …’

'A father and son muse on the value of fame and fortune and the path of chu jia or receding from the world by becoming a monk. On Christmas Eve a lonely immigrant travels from his deserted outer suburb to the city in search of life. Spouses navigate their adult son’s need to ‘rebrand’ himself with an English name. Between Shanghai and Montreal, a Chinese student and a Canadian man who has fallen in love with him exchange correspondence. Haunted by the sounds of piano and violin and the long-lost friend who returns only to him in dreams a man confronts the past. Can we ever really trust a car salesperson or those friends who say we must catch up soon but never do?

'Ouyang Yu’s first collection of stories in English is both assured and tender and at times surprisingly funny. It includes stories set in China and Australia that revel in the truth and candour of lived experience and the joys and constraints of language. In The White Cockatoo Flowers Ouyang Yu deftly peels back the layers on what it means to move from one culture to another, and what it means to be a writer, a husband, a parent and a stranger on foreign and familiar ground.'  (Publication summary)

1 Diary Entry (17/4) i "I have not written a single word. Things pile up, which is not an excuse. I urge myself to", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Saltbush Review , no. 4 2023;
1 y separately published work icon All the Rivers Run South Yu Ouyang , Glebe : Puncher and Wattmann , 2023 27137410 2023 single work novel

'This is supposedly the fictional biography of a street storyteller by the name of Ah Sin active during the gold-digging days of the 1850s and 1860s in Victoria, Australia, told by Zhang Baohui, a mainland Chinese student working on a PhD thesis in creative writing, at Laurendal University, under the supervision of Professor Stacey Ahsin.

'As Baohui delves deeper into Australia's past, he weaves the story of Ah Sin with his own by turning the academically required exegesis into a hodgepodge of his thought bursts, diary entries, carefully reported memory lapses, mini-historical stories, fragmentary pieces of poetry, philosophical musings on history and fiction, and his own story of illness, sexual ambiguities, and love or impossibility of love.' (Publication summary)

1 Wafer Thin i "Everything goes wafer thin, now", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 The Manhole Cover i "If nothing is stealable in this unstealable world", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 Dad Calling i "The distraught father appears on the scene", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 Hot Dry Noodles i "Hot dry noodles", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 Ash Tea i "A glass of tea", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 Induction, a Short One i "People often say", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: EgoPhobia , no. 77 2023;
1 This Is What I Heard You Say Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Pax Orbe Terrarum 2023;
1 105316 Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight 2023;
1 The Year of Badness Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight 2023;
1 6.24pm Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight 2023;
1 The Sudden Need to Scream Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Denver Quarterly , vol. 57 no. 3 2023; (p. 82-95)
1 Part of a Phone Conversation Overheard Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work short story
— Appears in: Quadrant , 1 July vol. 67 no. 7/8 2023; (p. 139-140)
1 Found, or Self-found Poetry, in an Age of Instant Trash Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , July 2023;

'Poetry, like air, exists everywhere, particularly when it comes to findable material in a plethora of things ranging from books of fiction or nonfiction, memoirs, biographies or autobiographies, history books, books of philosophy, diaries, books of letters, newspaper articles, remarks made by people online, including social media platforms such as FB, Twitter, IG, and WeChat, particular WeChat, and even emails, all, in my opinion, instant trash that contains gold only an appreciative eye could pick.' (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon Thought Is Free Yu Ouyang , Port Adelaide : Ginninderra Press , 2023 26603164 2023 selected work poetry prose essay

'‘Journal entries, poems, fragments, meditations. Allusions to and critical engagement with philosophers and writers – Chinese, European and Australian – this is what makes Ouyang Yus Thought Is Free a thinkers work, not a “thoughters” who only has thoughts. Delightfully readable!’ – Professor Prem Poddar, Vice-Chancellor of Darjeeling Hills University

'‘This book is a treasure for those who are already familiar with Ouyang Yus work spanning more than three decades. And if you are not familiar with his work, this is a welcome opportunity to get acquainted with his work and what shapes his writing and thinking. The book contains the thoughts of a writer who is one of the most nationally and internationally recognised Australian-Chinese writers of poetry and fiction in a hybrid narrative of inspirations, citations. It asks questions and provides tentative answers to what makes a writer tick, not least the commitment to writing and its accompanying delights and frustrations, and how they are shaped by living in a particular space at a particular time. A space simultaneously structured by nation/s, but also formed by the writers own investment in place, even hesitant sense of community and belonging. It is wonderfully idiosyncratic as such books are, similar in my catalogue of reading to Fernando Pessoas Disquietude, even if that was for a different place in a different time. Ouyang Yus take is distinctly personal and bears the hallmark of his preoccupations as a writer, as an Australian-Chinese, and as a very human being who is, as we all should all be at this moment of time, at peace and war with the world and its dis/orders.’ – Lars Jensen, Roskilde University

''Yu Ouyangs jaunty jottings are incredibly alive and bright and first-rate. This challenging book defies any intellectual effort to grasp thought.’ – Bénédicte Letellier, University of Reunion Island

'‘Enticing transpoeticnonfiction tag notwithstanding, Ouyang Yus Thought is Free is a daring exercise at and assertion of authorial creative freedom by a born-poet and cross-cultural agent provocateur that not only resists discipline and genre categorisation, but unflinchingly defies the readerspower to pass judgements or expect translation of unknown Chinese words or references. Yet the depth of his reflections and the breadth of his transcultural erudition summon the reader to keep on board an intriguing trip down sour memory lane with a mature migrant poet that is beyond prizes” and makes no qualms about giving Australia its due dose of bashing. Not that he shows much patience for celebrated Western thinkers whose universalist claims he defiantly contests as preposterous”. All in all, a nutritious crop of thoughtful fragments strung together into a book difficult to digest but worthy of plentiful red underlining” awards from its readers.’ – Aurora García Fernández' (Publication summary)

1 My Sixteen Grandfathers Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work prose
— Appears in: Westerly , vol. 68 no. 1 2023; (p. 144-152)
1 Answer to a Query i "Thank you for your query regarding correctness", Yu Ouyang , 2023 single work poetry
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , May 2023;
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