Chinese Public Talk “Fiction and Imagination: Many Facets of Literary Expression”
Moderator:
Dr. William Ng (Department of Religion and Philosophy, HKBU)
Speakers:
Mr. Ouyang Jianghe
Mr. Egoyan Zheng
The talk is conducted in Putonghua.
7 Nov 2012 (Wed)
4:00pm – 5.30pm
RRS905, Sir Run Run Shaw Building, Hong Kong Baptist University
All are welcome
Public Recital
Moderator:
Mr. David McKirdy (Poetry OutLoud)
Reciters:
All Visiting Writers
Members of Poetry OutLoud
(Co-organized with Poetry OutLoud)
7 Nov 2012 (Wed)
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fringe Club
2nd Lower Albert Road, Central
All are welcome
Chinese Public Talk “Images of an Era in Words and Writing”
Moderator:
Dr. Lim Chin Chown (Department of Chinese Language and Literature, HKBU)
Dr. Ge Liang (Department of Chinese Language and Literature, HKBU)
Speakers:
Mr. Ouyang Jianghe
Mr. Egoyan Zheng
The talk is conducted in Putonghua.
(Co-organized by LCSD Hong Kong Public Libraries)
3 Nov 2012 (Sat)
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Lecture Theatre 1, Ground Floor, Hong Kong Central Library, Causeway Bay
All are welcome
Taiwan-born and -raised poet Yang Mu 楊牧 has won the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature from the University of Oklahoma.
Yang was nominated by UC Davis professor Michelle Yeh, co-translator with Lawrence R. Smith of Yang’s collection No Trace of the Gardener (another volume, translated by Joseph Allen, was published as Forbidden Games & Video Poems: The Poetry of Lo Chʻing [羅青]). The other nominees were Hsia Yü 夏宇, Yang Lian 杨炼, Zhai Yongming 翟永明, and Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河, nominated by Jennifer Feeley (U. Iowa, USA), Michel Hockx (U. London SOAS, UK), Wolfgang Kubin (Bonn U., Germany), and Zhang Qinghua 张清华 (BNU, PRC), respectively.
Rare for contemporary Chinese poetry, all nominated poets have single-author collections available in English translation. Coincidentally, three of the nominees–Hsia, Zhai, and Ouyang–have had their only books in English published by Zephyr Press.
I’ve compiled a list of the poets whose work appears in English translation in Jade Ladder, the new anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry edited by Yang Lian 杨炼, W N Herbert, Brian Holton, and Qin Xiaoyu 秦晓宇. The anthology presents the work of poets by birth year, but the work is separated into sections–lyric poems, narrative poems, neo-classical poems, sequences, experimental poems, and long poems–so I’ve put together this alphabetical list of the poets represented. Poets in bold (23, by my count) are those not included in the recent Copper Canyon anthology, Push Open the Window (of whom 19 of the 49 are not included in JL; click here for that anthology’s table of contents). Also, since Jade Ladder is English-only, I’m not sure of every poet’s name in Chinese, and consequently have left some blank. If you know, or spot any other errors, let me know.
- Bai Hua 柏桦
- Bei Dao 北岛
- Chen Dongdong 陈东东
- Chen Xianfa 陈先发
- Duo Duo 多多
- Ge Mai 戈麦
- Gu Cheng 顾城
- Hai Zi 海子
- Han Bo韩博
- Hu Dong
- Hu Xudong 胡续冬
- Huang Canran 黄灿然
- Jiang Hao 蒋浩
- Jiang He 江河
- Jiang Tao 姜涛
- Liao Yiwu 廖亦武
- Lü De’an 吕德安
- Ma Hua 马骅
- Mai Cheng
- Mang Ke 芒克
- Meng Lang 孟浪
- Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河
- Pan Wei
- Qin Xiaoyu 秦晓宇
- Qing Ping 清平
- Senzi 森子
- Shui Yin
- Song Lin 宋琳
- Song Wei
- Sun Lei
- Sun Wenbo 孙文波
- Wang Ao 王敖
- Wang Xiaoni 王小妮
- Xi Chuan 西川
- Xiao Kaiyu 肖开愚
- Ya Shi
- Yan Li
- Yang Lian 杨炼
- Yang Xiaobin 杨小滨
- Yang Zheng
- Yi Sha 伊沙
- Yu Jian 于坚
- Yu Nu 余怒
- Zang Di 臧棣
- Zhai Yongming 翟永明
- Zhang Danyi
- Zhang Dian
- Zhang Shuguang 张曙光
- Zhang Zao 张枣
- Zhong Ming
- Zhou Lunyou
- Zhu Zhu 朱朱
- Zou Jingzhi
Almost Island editor Sharmistha Mohanty sent me the following pictures from the India-China Writers Dialogues. In the first is, from the top left, Xi Chuan, Li Tuo 李陀, Lydia Liu 刘禾, Zhong Yurou 钟雨柔, Kabir Mohanty, Ge Fei 格非, with Sharmistha Mohanty, Bei Dao 北岛, Ashwini Bhat, and Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河 in the bottom row.
In the second shot, we have Xi Chuan with Ouyang Jianghe and Sharmistha Mohanty.
The pictures were taken by Samimitra Das.
The January 2012 issue of Asymptote is now online, featuring Xi Chuan‘s “Beast” 巨兽, “The Distance” 远方, and “Poison” 毒药, in my translations. You can also hear a recording of “The Distance” read in Chinese by Huang Yin-Nan.
This issue also hosts a great range of international writing, especially when it comes to writing in Chinese: there’s Xi Chuan’s friend Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河, translated by Austin Woerner, and Taiwanese superstar poet Hsia Yü 夏宇, translated by Steve Bradbury. And then there’s the Taiwan Fiction Feature.
Great to be included in that group!
While I expect it will be some time until the participants of the India-China Writers Dialogues publish anything about the event–these writers want to be thorough and accurate to both reality and emotion–I did come across another press report, from Express India. It begins discussing the germ of the idea with Sharmistha Mohanty and Bei Dao, and moving on toward the following detail:
Since the beginning of the dialogue two years ago, the participants have been the same group of writers, and Mohanty believes this has been a very important aspect. “With the same group of writers meeting each time, we have become good friends and learnt a lot from each other,” she says. Besides the speakers for the panel discussion, the participants include Allan Sealy, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Adil Jussawalla, Vivek Narayanan and K Satchidanandan from India and Ge Fei, Xi Chuan, Zhai Yongming and Ouyang Jianghe from China.
These discussions are not limited to analysing writing styles and such. In the course of these two years, the participants have exchanged a great deal about their histories and cultures, too. “We talk about a variety of things,” says Mohanty. “For instance, what does tradition mean to us? How is it represented in our lives and works? Or how a writer wrestles with his past when he is writing. We discuss whether he rejects that long past or embraces it, and so on.”
In honor of the upcoming China – India Writers Dialogues, I wanted to point out the journal Almost Island, whose editors Sharmistha Mohanty and Vivek Narayanan have been organizing the Dialogues.
See also the Almost Island publication of Mohanty’s essay on her experiences in China, “Mountains and Rivers“; Xi Chuan only gets the briefest of mentions (Bei Dao 北岛, Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河, and Li Tuo 李陀 get fuller discussions), but it’s a grand take on one writer’s considerations of China and its contrasts with India. Also the prose poem “Editorial Sutras,” which offers Mohanty’s impressions of the first Chinese – Indian Writers’ Dialogue, in 2009.
Xi Chuan will be traveling to Mumbai soon for the India-China Writers Dialogues. Here is a press release along with a schedule of speakers:
The online literature journal Almost Island, founded and edited by novelist Sharmistha Mohanty along with poet Vivek Narayanan, has begun a dialogue with mainland Chinese writers. The first such dialogue, led on the Chinese side by the great contemporary poet Bei Dao and the seminal journal Jintian (Today), was held in 2009 in New Delhi. This was possibly the first unofficial dialogue between Indian and Chinese writers in recent times. The second was held in China, in Beijing and Shanghai. This Mumbai meet is the third chapter of the dialogues. It brings together some of China’s and India’s leading writers. Ashis Nandy who has been part of these dialogues, has called it “historical”. He has said, “This is not a meeting between two countries, but an encounter between two civilisations.” The two evenings of readings will be rich with poets and novelists from both countries reading from their exceptional works.
Dec 19:
Zhai Yongming 翟永明
Allan Sealy
Xi Chuan 西川
Rukmini Bhaya Nair
Ge Fei 格非
K.SatchidanandanDec 20:
Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河
Sharmistha Mohanty
Adil Jussawalla
Han Shanogong 韩少功
Vivek Narayanan
Bei Dao 北岛