It's estimated he sold 1 billion records worldwide. He won 17 Grammy Awards and 26 American Music Awards.

"My colleagues say they've learned new things about the pop idol while working on the collection. The book offers a glimpse into Jackson's beautiful and pure mind," Huang says.

The poems reveal more about the "true" Jackson than his dances and songs, he says.

"His world is all about love, faith and curiosity."

The official bilingual book comes after an edition translated by a Taiwan-based lyricist that fans call "not quite professional". His fans, in turn, produced their own version, which was widely circulated online.

The new authorized edition brought on board Chen Dongbiao, an established translator who has published Chinese versions of works by such literary giants as Vladimir Nabokov, William Butler Yeats, Jorge Luis Borges and Ezra Pound since the 1990s.

Chen first saw video of Jackson's performance 30 years ago.