The Flowering Of Modern Chinese Poetry

The May Fourth Movement launched an era of turmoil and transformation in China, as Western ideas and education encroached on the Confucian traditions at the root of Chinese society. The Republican period (1919–49) witnessed an outpouring of poetry in a form and style new to China, written in the common people’s language, baihua ("plain speech"). The New Poetry broke with the centuries-old tradition of classical poetry and its intricate forms, and the rise of China’s modern poetry reflects the rise of modern China. The Flowering of Modern Chinese Poetry presents English translations of over 250 poems by fifty poets, including a rich selection of poetry by women writers, to provide a nuanced picture of the rapid development of vernacular verse in China from its emergence during the May Fourth Movement, through the years of the Japanese invasion, to the Communist victory in the Civil War in 1949. Michel Hockx introduces the historical and literary contexts of the various schools of vernacular poetry that developed throughout the period – the pioneers, formalists, symbolists, "peasants and soldiers" poets, and Shanghai poets of the late 1940s. Each selection of verse begins with a biographical sketch of the author’s life and literary career, including their roles in the Civil War and Japanese occupation. Introducing English readers to master poets who are virtually unknown to Western audiences, this anthology presents a collection of verse written in an age of struggle that attests to the courage, sensitivity, and imagination of the Chinese people.

Chinese prose poetry today is engaged with a series of questions that are fundamental to the modern Chinese language: What is prose? What is it good for? How should it look and sound? Millions of Chinese readers encounter prose poetry every year, both in the most official of state-sponsored magazines and in the unorthodox, experimental work of the avant-garde. Recite and Refuse makes the answers to our questions about prose legible by translating, surveying, and interpreting prose poems, and by studying the people, politics, and contexts that surround the writing of prose poetry. Author Nick Admussen argues that unlike most genres, Chinese prose poems lack a distinct size or shape. Their similarity to other prose is the result of a distinct process in which a prose form is recited with some kind of meaningful difference—an imitation that refuses to fully resemble its source. This makes prose poetry a protean, ever-changing group of works, channeling the language of science, journalism, Communist Party politics, advertisements, and much more. The poems look vastly different as products, but are made with a similar process. Focusing on the composition process allows Admussen to rewrite the standard history of prose poetry, finding its origins not in 1918 but in the obedient socialist prose poetry of the 1950s. Recite and Refuse places the work of state-sponsored writers in mutual relationship to prose poems by unorthodox and avant-garde poets, from cadre writers like Ke Lan and Guo Feng to the border-crossing intellectual and poet Liu Zaifu to experimental artists such as Ouyang Jianghe and Xi Chuan. The volume features never-before seen English translations that range from the representative to the exceptional, culminating with Ouyang Jianghe’s masterpiece “Hanging Coffin.” Reading across the spectrum enables us to see the way that artists interact with each other, how they compete and cooperate, and how their interactions, as well as their creations, continuously reinvent both poetry and prose.

This is the first paperback edition of a classic anthology of Chinese poetry. Spanning two thousand years—from the Book of Songs (circa 600 B.C.) to the chü form of the Yuan Dynasty (1260–1368)—these 150 poems cover all major genres that students of Chinese poetry must learn. Newly designed, the unique format of this volume will enhance its reputation as the definitive introduction to Chinese poetry, while its introductory essay on issues of Chinese aesthetics will continue to be an essential text on the problems of translating such works into English. Each poem is printed with the original Chinese characters in calligraphic form, coordinated with word-for-word annotations, and followed by an English translation. Correcting more than a century of distortion of the classical Chinese by translators unconcerned with the intricacies and aesthetics of the Chinese language, these masterful translations by Wai-lim Yip, a noted and honored translator and scholar, allow English readers to enter more easily into the dynamic of the original poems. Each section of the volume is introduced by a short essay on the mode or genre of poem about to be presented and is followed by a comprehensive bibliography.

This book, first published in 1947, is an anthology of Chinese poetry from a period when it was entering an entirely new world, where all or nearly all the ancient poetic traditions were being cast aside. No longer could Chinese poetry be regarded as the graceful accomplishment of retired sages: the new voices were powerful, realistic, even brutal.

Chinese women's writing is rich and abundant, although not well known in the West. Despite the brutal wars and political upheavals that ravaged twentieth-century China, the ranks of women in the literary world increased dramatically. This anthology introduces English language readers to a comprehensive selection of Chinese women poets from both the mainland and Taiwan. It spans the early 1920s and the era of Republican China's literary renaissance through the end of the twentieth century. The collection includes 245 poems by forty poets in elegant English translations, as well as an extensive introduction that surveys the history of contemporary Chinese women's poetry. Brief biographical head notes introduce each poet, from Bin Xin, China's preeminent woman poet in the early Republican period, to Rongzi, a leading poet of modern Taiwan. The selections are startling, moving, and wide-ranging in mood and tone. Together they present an enticing palette of delightful, elegant, playful, lyric, and tragic poetry.

This volume—a completely overhauled and updated version of Michelle Yeh’s 1992 classic Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry—brings together modern poetry from the Chinese-speaking world dating from the 1910s to the 2010s. Featuring the work of 85 poets from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore, it contains more than 280 poems that span the entire history of modern Chinese poetry. Poets include those regarded as canonical as well as some who have been newly “discovered” or reevaluated in recent years, each selected for their distinctive voice and inimitable style. Also, for the first time, contemporary song lyrics are included as poetry. This diversity of perspectives, along with its geographic reach and expansive timeframe, make the anthology a much-needed contribution to the study of Chinese poetry and world literature. With short biographies of the poets, a select bibliography, and a comprehensive introduction, A Century of Modern Chinese Poetry is a critical resource for students, scholars, and general readers alike.