Lee also played an active role in social reforms through his newspaper column. These commentaries on culture and the arts were later collected in On Being a Taiwanese Writer, a book that broached the topic of the standing of Taiwanese writers and urged writers to reevaluate their own role and capabilities; it won the 1989 Wu Yung-fu Cultural Criticism Award.
他更以寫評論專欄的方式，積極參與社會改造，其文化藝術評論集結成《作為一個台灣作家》，率先提出台灣作家的定位問題，呼籲作家重新思考自己的角色和功能，本書 1989 年獲巫永福評論獎。