[Wgcp-whc] Meeting Minutes: Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets

Nancy Kuhl nancy.kuhl at yale.edu
Mon Apr 23 11:36:34 EDT 2007


All­-

Since Richard wasn’t able to join us on Friday, I will attempt a short 
report on our lively discussion of Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets.

Though several group members are scholars, translators, and aficionados of 
contemporary Chinese poetry, many of us have had little exposure to Chinese 
poetry; thus, our readings for Friday’s meeting and last week’s historic 
reading on campus by eight Chinese poets and their translators provided a 
broad introduction to the field. That introduction was enriched during our 
meeting by a lengthy discussion of the social, cultural, historical, 
political, and aesthetic contexts in which the day’s readings were written, 
read, translated, and studied.

The Chinese poetry experts among us offered a brief history of twentieth 
century poetry in China, beginning with a discussion of the “official” 
Maoist verse sanctioned by the state. From this groundwork of proletariat 
realism, we went on to discuss the so-called “Misty” poets of the 1970s and 
1980s, some of whose work is included in Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets. 
The term “Misty” refers to work that stood in opposition to the state 
sanctioned poetry of the period and which was thought to be more opaque 
than the straightforward and plain style of the official verse. These poets 
explored emotional and intellectual subject matter, using poetry as a means 
of articulating individual, internal experience. The Misty poets influenced 
a new generation of poets who continue to work outside the realist 
aesthetic that has defined much of the Chinese poetry of the twentieth century.

Turning to the text, we spoke at length about the work of Zhai Yongming. 
Yongming is a leading woman poet in China and was among the poets who read 
here last week. We focused our discussion on Yongming’s early work, 
considering the influence of Sylvia Plath and other confessional writers. 
Andrea Lingenfelter, who read translations of Yongming’s work at the event 
last week, distributed copies of her translation of one of Yongming’s 
central poems, “Premonition” (called “Foreboding” in Eight Contemporary 
Chinese Poets). The two different translations provided the group with 
opportunities to discuss the particulars of Chinese syntax and linguistic 
structure.

At out next meeting, poet Xi Chuan will join the group to discuss his work 
and that of his fellow poets. A selection of Xi Chuan’s work is included in 
Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets and online at 
http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/summer06.html.  That meeting will take place 
at 3pm on May 4th.


Nancy Kuhl

Nancy Kuhl
Associate Curator, The Yale Collection of American Literature
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
121 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
Phone: 203.432.2966
Fax: 203.432.4047 
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