Taiwanese writer Hsieh Che-ching, better known as Ryan Hsieh (謝哲青), thought he was just opening a letter. What he found inside turned out to be, quite literally, out of this world.
An astronomer had named an asteroid after him.
The honor came from William Kwong Yu Yeung, who discovered the space rock on September 20, 2001, at the Desert Eagle Observatory and recently chose to name it after the Taiwanese author after reading his book Starlit Ballad (星空吟遊). The naming has been formally accepted by the Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union and entered into the NASA/JPL Small-Body Database as 34792 Hsiehcheching.
A Book That Flew Off the Page — and Into Space
In the official naming citation, Yeung described Ryan Hsieh as a Taiwanese travel and art history writer and called Starlit Ballad the most poetic astronomy book he had ever read. Hsieh’s earlier book Banknotes Writing Romance had won the Golden Ding Award, but nothing in his career quite prepared him for this.
Ballad was my meditation and imagination on the universe, history, and life,” he wrote. “I never imagined that the words I put down could cross the page and reach another person exploring the night sky — and I certainly never expected that shared resonance to become an asteroid actually orbiting our solar system.”
He also thanked Yeung directly, adding: “The next time I look up at the stars, I will do so with greater humility, remembering this gift from the depths of the universe.”
“Small, Dim, and Lonely” — Just Like Literature
For Ryan Hsieh, the news prompted a moment of reflection that was characteristically literary. He drew a quiet parallel between asteroids and the nature of writing itself.
“When you think about it, asteroids are a perfect metaphor for literature,” he wrote. “Unlike stars, they emit no light of their own. Unlike planets, they hold no grand presence. They are small, dim, and lonely — often known only by a number, never a name.”
In the universe of literature, he continued, an asteroid would never be the hero. It is something closer to the figures who are overlooked and adrift, still waiting for the world to take notice. The reflection resonated widely among his readers online.
As for asteroid 34792 Hsiehcheching — it has a name now.
