Two Hearts, Two Tongues and Rain-coloured Eyes

Ouyang Yu (born 1955 in Hubei province, China) came to Australia in 1991 to study for his doctorate. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree at La Trobe University (1995) for his thesis Representing the Other: Chinese in Australian Fiction. Ouyang publishes poetry and fiction in both English and Chinese. As suggested by the title of the collection, Two Hearts, Two Tongues and Rain-coloured Eyes, the poet has settled into his new environment, yet he continues relentlessly to critique that environment in incisive and provocative imagery. Devoid of sentimentality, some of these poems also provide glimpses of the poet’s past life that are thrown up when he revisits his old home in China.