scholarly journals China’s New Poetry or Into the Mist

Asian Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 29-40
Author(s):  
Maja Lavrač
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Chinese Poetry ◽  
Modernist Poetry ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The late 1970s and early 1980s represent a period of important innovation in the development of contemporary Chinese poetry. As this was highly personal and experimental, it soon became characterized as being “misty” or “obscure”. A new generation of young poets questioned the Chinese cultural tradition and expressed the need for its re-evaluation. They tried to re-examine the meaning of literature, and while doing so, they based the foundation for their poetry on the tradition and the spirit of personal freedom and democracy of the May 4th Movement (1919), having been at the same time strongly influenced by the Western modernist poetry, in which they found alternative fresh ideas.

scholarly journals The Ocular Turn, Misty Poetry, and a Postrevolutionary Imagination

Prism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-84
Author(s):  
Xiaobing Tang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Chinese Poetry ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Post Cultural Revolution ◽  
Bei Dao ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Abstract “The Answer,” a poem by Bei Dao first published in 1978, marks the emergence of a defiant voice in contemporary Chinese poetry and asserts skepticism as the political stance of a young generation in post–Cultural Revolution China. It also heralds a historic transition from an era of sonic agitation to an aesthetics based on visual perception and contemplation. This rereading of Bei Dao's canonical poem and other related texts goes back to the late 1970s, when the political implications of the human senses were firmly grasped and heatedly debated. The author shows that an ocular turn occurs in “The Answer” and drives the aesthetic as well as political pursuits of a new generation of poets. He further argues that, in a moment still enthralled with a revolutionary sonic culture, Misty poetry disavowed aural excitement and was part of the reconditioning of the human senses in preparation for a postrevolutionary order and sensibility.

scholarly journals The Round Table 03 圆桌: A Conversation with Xu Bing

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 201-207
Author(s):  
Madeline Eschenburg ◽  
Ellen Larson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Round Table ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Xu Bing ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The following is an excerpt from a conversation between contemporary Chinese artist Xu Bing, Madeline Eschenburg, and Ellen Larson. Xu Bing curated an exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts titled The Second CAFAM Future Exhibition, Observer-Creator: The Reality Representation of Chinese Young Art, on exhibition through March 2015. Our conversation centered around his thoughts on a new generation of young Chinese artists as well as reflection on his own early career and time in New York. The conversation was conducted in Chinese and has been translated into English.

British Lord, American Movie Idol and Soviet Counterculture Figure

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. White
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
American Individualism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Previous Scholarship

For an entire generation of Soviet youth, Tarzan was a provocative symbol of individualism and personal freedom. Previous scholarship has included Tarzan within the larger counterculture movement of the thaw period (1953–64), but has not specifically examined how this occurred. Joseph S. Nye has coined the term soft power to describe the ability to attract and to co-opt rather than to force another nation into accepting your ideals. Within this rubric, Tarzan’s presence in the Soviet Union was simultaneously entertaining and provocative. As literary fare in the 1920s, Tarzan represented an escape from war and revolution and was sanctioned as acceptable reading for Soviet youths. The celluloid Tarzan also represented an escape, but this time from the repressive Stalinist regime and the hardships of post-WWII Soviet society. Raised on both the books and films, a new generation of Soviet youth longed for the individual freedom that Tarzan came to represent. Tarzan’s impact in the Soviet Union is one example of western cultural infiltration that contributed to the idealization of American individualism over the Soviet collective within the Soviet Union.

scholarly journals Performative Strategies in Contemporary Chinese Avant-garde Poetry

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Yulia A. Dreyzis
Keyword(s):  
Modern Art ◽  
Experimental Poetry ◽  
Chinese Poetry ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Xu Bing ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The paper presents an attempt to explore the problem of mediality in Chinese poetry of the last thirty years. New Chinese poetry is particularly susceptible to the influence of the latest concepts of modern art and now more than ever needs a clear contextualization in relation to other forms of culture and avant-garde practice. This can be achieved through applying an analysis paradigm for performative word art developed by Dr. Tomáš Glanc in the context of Czech and Russian neo-avant-garde. It perceives experimental poetry as a form that fulfills a shift of the word thus making it labile. Examples of this phenomena can be found in Chinese poetry in the works of Ouyang Jianghe, Yang Xiaobin, Ouyang Yu, Xia Yu, Chen Li, Xu Bing, Wuqing and many more experimental artists. Their creative use of word shift principles shows how performative strategies are adapted in contemporary Chinese poetry keeping in mind the specific hanzi (character) medium that it is based upon. It seems both a continuation of a long-existing tradition and a radical exploration of the ‘iconic turn’ in the field of language.

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