Poetry. Asian Studies. Hsia Yu was born in Taiwan but is now dividing her time between Paris and Taipei, and makes a living as a song lyricist and translator. Yu's frank and innovative treatment of gender and sexuality heralds the beginning of a much-awaited Chinese ecriture feminine. As critics have noted, Hsia Yu may well be the first woman poet in Taiwan to have written about love and romance in a way that breaks radically from the conventions and constraints of traditional Chinese women's poetry. Translated by Steve Bradbury.