Fonds 06 - David Hui Archives 許之遠檔案

David Hui (許之遠) was born in 1935 in Kaiping, Guangdong Province, China. During the Korean War in 1950, he went to Hong Kong with his father where he worked as a shoemaking apprentice until he was 18 years old. In 1957, he passed Taiwan's Joint College Entrance Examination (大學聯合招生考試) and entered the College of Law, National Taiwan University (國立臺灣大學法律學院), where he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree in Economics. After graduating in 1961, he spent a year working as a Chinese and History teacher in Wellington College (威靈頓英文中學). In the next year, he flew to Canada on September 1962 to pursue another degree in marketing reserach in McMaster University, Ontario. But after a few gap years working in Shell Oil Canada to make a living, he decied to complete a Master of Arts degree at the Department of East Asian STudies, University of Toronto instead, which he compelted in 1979.

Hui is a writer, editor, artist, and public intellectual whose works span across literature, poetry, memoir, visual art, and cultural history. Active across mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Canada, he contributed extensively to Chinese-language print culture, including as a contributor to Sing Tao (星島報業), Hong Kong Times (香況時報), 中央日報 (Central Daily News), Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News (新生報), Youth Daily News (青年日報), China Daily News (中華日報), Great News (大成報) etc. Publishing more than 50 books, his writings and artistic practice address subjects ranging from the history of Toronto’s Chinatown to Chinese calligraphy and painting and personal and collective memory. His literary work has been recognized for its expressive range and stylistic depth, drawing on classical Chinese literary traditions while combining emotional resonance, lyrical clarity, and incisive critical voice. He is recognized as an early and influential advocate of “Chinatown literature” in the Canadian Chinese literary context.

Hui also played significant public roles in the cultural and political sector. He served as a legislator in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (立法院) from 1990 to 1993 and later as an advisor to the Mayor of Taipei from 1995 to 1998. He taught briefly at Shih Hsin University (世新大學) in Taipei and held leadership roles in several literary and artistic organizations, including the World Poets Conference, the Ontario Chinese Artists Association, and the Toronto Chinese Writers Association (多倫多華人作家協會). He represented the Hong Kong Chinese PEN Club (香港筆會) on multiple occasions at PEN International congresses. Now retired and residing in Markham, Ontario, Hui remains active in literary and cultural circles through writing, public engagement, and artistic practice.