Perhaps the most radical act one can performin China or the Westis to think ones own thoughts, to stand apart from the crowd. A member of the Red Guards for a short time and then a construction worker, he began to write as a substitute for active political involvement and as a protest against contemporary official literature. Essay. PhDessay is an educational resource where over 1,000,000 free essays are Bei Dao ("North Island") was one of several noms de plume under which he wrote covertly in the 1970s. Zhao Zhenkai was born on August 2, 1949, in Beijing. And the result of this conflict has enormous political implications. Bei Dao was born in Peking in 1949. All is repeated several times throughout the poem and stands for the idea that our . The Dao of Capital is a book that surely gives a lot of attention to practices, common for the middle ages, and the transition from basic to globalized markets. Bei Dao is among the pioneers of the Misty school, a group of poets who came into prominence in the 1970s, through the poetry magazine Jiantian (Today), which he launched together with Mang Ke. Bei Dao Biography. "The Answer" by Bei Dao, translated by Bonnie S. McDougall from. ?>. By continuing well assume youre on board with our Alternate titles: Beidao, Pei Tao, Zhao Zhenkai, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bei-Dao, Minnesota State University - Biography of Bei Dao. Here, Bei Dao uses the creativity, tone, language, trope and theme of this poem to emphasize and be a representative of all the people who were stuck in a Maoist society, as he states the peoples capacity for freedom and their uprising and realization that suppression is acknowledged, however not and will never be achieved. There is a sort of traditional belief in China that ones name and ones fate are linked together.. Its a problem Ive encountered quite often in the West and I think its connected with what you said earlier about the commercialized image. Youre slotted into an image, into a sort of representative story angle, and you can never leave it. The main device used in "All" is repetition. Its as if he were pulling the poems further and further away from easy interpretation, struggling to keep them far from anything that could be taken as mere cant or co-opted as a slogan. He taught at universities around the world, including the University of California at Davis and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Its a summary of experiences that includes the back streets of Peking, the look of certain places, the sounds of people quarreling on streets or exchanging the time of day….I still carry my Chinese address book with me because it helps me to recreate situations. Still, he was careful to make the distinction that [o]ne may be giving voice to feelings other people holdbut that means the poem represents feelings, but is not a representative of how people feel. Yet he also offered that a poet does have the responsibility to be the memory of his people, to remind them of past eventsand this is especially true in China, where there is a State policy of national amnesia. 81-83. . But if I saw myself as a leader at all, it was as an artistic one. On the other hand, it is a way up, a new growth. In addition, on May 4th, 1919, the May Fourth movement took place in response to the unequal treaty the West has imposed on China. The visual imagery here can be tied in with the title as the visual images are pleasant, which hints the recollection of a pleasant and pure beauty that which the poet himself has encountered with different people (faces) on several occasions, although these people seem not to leave a trace which hints the numerous amounts of people the poet might have encountered with to emphasize his connection with all those he has come into contact with. Western efforts identify Dao as the way, with reason or nature are one-sided - "the Dao that can . But we walked and chatted, he straining to summon his words of English, I struggling to simplify mine. Here, the poet, Bei Dao is simply arguing that suppression of thought, speech, freedom, etc are unrealistic achievements that the government is pressing for, for they will never succeed. Now its more the case that there is room to mix the cultures. (2001), Reclaiming the Word: A Conversation with Bei Dao, Giving Their Word: Conversations With Contemporary Poets. But as the process continues and a poem is being considered for possible publication, there is an increasing awareness of audienceof the outside eyes you hope such a piece will speak to. Wu ye zhi men (Midnights Gate), a volume of essays weaving political discourse with stories of his travels, was released in 2005. On the other hand, it is also true to say that everything that I have done has always been interpreted politically. The aggravated tone in these lines portrays the fearlessness of the speaker and his willingness to challenge the power structure. the answer as a misty poem8. As a poet, how is he able to persist? The name itself was accidental, with no great significance to it, except that it was chosen twelve years ago with the first publication of the unofficial literary magazine called Jintian (Today), which he edited with his poet-friend Mang Ke. It was through the generosity of friends and strangersthe network of Chinese expatriates and the loose-knit brotherhood of poetsthat he began to remake his life, a process he has beautifully detailed in his recent collection of prose pieces, Blue House (Zephyr Press). / If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet, / Count me as number one thousand and one" (11-16). I began by asking the poet about the significance of his pen name, which in Chinese means North Island. It seemed a simple enough starting point. Bei Dao's poem suggests a social order in which people can decline to believe that the sky is blue, or that dreams are false, and that won't be the end of the world. He was one of the originators of menglongshi (misty poetry or shadows poetry), which uses metaphor and cryptic language to express beauty and yearnings for freedom, while avoiding direct discussions of contemporary political and social issues. . Twenty essays about Bei Dao's life in exile since Tiananmen Square. According to Confucian beliefs, these series of losses were disgraceful. support@phdessay.com. By this point, I could see how I had already fallen into the same trap, carried the same sort of preconceptions to this conversation. Need urgent help with your paper? Although the poet had some command of English, Iona served as translator for our talks. A video lecture on the poem named the answer by chinese poet bei dao. I couldnt help wondering how the prospect of this slow evolution felt for a young man living several thousand miles from the home he wishes to enter, from the faces he would give almost anything to touch again. Even faith is drowned in lamentation. We met at the home of Iona Man-Cheong, a visiting China scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He did not return to China but traveled throughout the West, gaining an international audience for his poetry, which began to reflect his profound sorrow at separation from his family and homeland. Which do they think will stand the test of time? He chose the pen name because he came from the north and because of his preference for solitude. ISBN: -7734-5875-1. Did he think he would see this new China in his lifetime? As my words were translated, a shadow of sorts swept across his expression. Among his works in English translation are Forms of Distance (1994) and Landscape Over Zero (1996), as well as a collection of short stories, Waves (1990), all from New Directions. This phenomenon is, on the one hand, a restriction, a limitation. D.. Amber Davis Professor Quirk Literature 101 February 28, 2013 We Wear the Mask The lyric poem We wear the mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem about the African. As a writer and a poet, I am part of a search to find a new language of expression [within the Chinese]. If this was not the voice of rebellion, then what was it? Of course, I dont differ from you in first writing for myself and then for readers. Dont let this American culture take you over. But in fact I discovered that its very difficult to define American culture. * Bei Fragen einfach anrufen oder schreiben: +49 (0)176 248 87 424. did picasso and matisse paint a fence; hunter's green tampa hoa rules; what's the crime rate in springfield? The Answers Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. But of course now the reaction, the reflection that returns to me, is quite different. We exchanged poems, and Bei Dao gave me copies of the selection he would read the following evening at the Oxfam celebration. He has received numerous international awards for his poetry, and is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. . This essay was written by a fellow student. I think it's a collection of poems. Each of the three stanzas began with the word Not… and, in its negation, seemed to attempt to erase a portion of grief and remake the memory of the tragedy that occurred. And, in fact, since Ive been in exile beginning in 1989, Ive lived in Northern Europe. 2. The Opium War in China was disasterous to China, accelerating its downfall. it is a powerfull affirmation of humanity. The Homecoming is one of Nobel laureate Harold Pinter's most compelling and critically acclaimed plays. A few thousand miles west, Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert uses the poem "The Envoy of Mr. Cogito" to reflect on life in Poland during the long years of repression under Soviet occupation. I had a last question for the poet. English editions of his poetry included Old Snow (1991), written in the wake of Tiananmen Square, and Forms of Distance (1994), which evokes the alternating pain and privilege of exile. The country that perceived themselves as superior to all outsiders and invincible in battle was shown just how incapable they were. In 1905, the Dowager Empress sent a select group of Chinese officials on a world tour to study the operation of different governments. Chapter 28, section 1, page, Then they capitalized on distrust tainting their respective presidents. But in the past, its been the case that either people overemphasize Western influences or they overemphasize the traditional. Nov 12, 2022 Bei Dao is one of the first great poets in the Post-Mao era, and this short poem demonstrates why. As a teenager, Bei Dao was a member of the Red Guards, the enthusiastic followers of Mao Zedong who enforced the dictates of the Cultural Revolution, often through violent means. This is the home of Max, the aging patriarch; his brother Sam; and Max's two sons Lenny, a small-time pimp, and Joey, an aspiring boxer. The 'guitar' mentioned in line 5 is a 'hint' of sound, as it can also have deeper meaning; Bei Dao continues his use of words to symbolize sounds such as 'whispers', etc. The West tends to see China in oversimplified terms, especially when it comes to looking at the June 4th incident in 1989. In 1921, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) was found, leading to two civil wars (the first being from 1927 to 1936 and the second from 1946 to 1949) between the Nationalist and Communist parties. Because it was a time of great repression, it was dangerous to have ones poems go too far afield. I got the impression that had the Chinese government not interceded, Bei Dao might have remained content within these narrow borders. the poem the answer starts with the lines debasement is the password of the base and in the flow of the poem he wishes for a world without restrictions and oppressions. 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. all love buried in the heart, all history prisoned in a dream, all hope hedged with doubt, all faith drowned in lamentation. Drawing a connection to Havel's essay, the reader will note that "ice" represents automatism, as people surrender their right to free thought and expression. This is caught as Bei Dao uses more powerful imagery, tying in both vision and sound i. e. 'begins to sound in the darkness', 'darkness' merely representing the suppression of the people, and 'begins to sound' to emphasize that his encounter with all these people have shown him something different, as they seem to be starting to stand up for themselves by sharing opinions, which by itself is going against this 'darkness'. The rebells as the western called the rebels the boxers because they performed physical that the rebels / boxers believe can make them withstand to bullets, the rebels killed chinese chritians and destroy foreign property. Naturally the State feels this search as a positive threat to their powers.Was this just a problem of semantics, modesty, or something deeper? Dao was one of the foremost poets of the Misty School, and his early poems were a source of inspiration . Corrections? There is a Western outlook toward China that ought to be corrected. If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet. The writer sat stony-faced through the long litany of million-dollar donations from the alumni and then, when it was his turn to speak, launched into a harangue about how spoiled weve become in the West. Before I left my country in 1989, I could count on a larger audience within China itself. The underlying premise in Tommaso Campanella's narrative is that a knight of Hospitaliers of Saint John is questioning a sailor about his visit to a remote city. Subsequently/Next, Bei Dao gets more serious about the issue as he states 'like the masthead light reflected in water', the 'masthead light' representing all the people in China, and the 'reflected water' being a mere representation of purity and innocence or a ripple affect, symbolizing how all the people who are suppressed seem to realize their own rights and are slowly starting to rub off on one another as more and more people get influenced and start fighting for themselves and their own freedom and happiness. His poem The Answer , written during the Tiananmen protest of 1976 (against the gang of four led by Mao's widow Jiang . The first time he asks that his son, Finn, be baptized by himself. 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