{"id":2278,"date":"2013-11-11T09:30:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T01:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2278"},"modified":"2013-11-03T15:38:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T07:38:40","slug":"former-people-interview-with-lucas-klein-on-china-and-literary-modernism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2278","title":{"rendered":"Former People Interview with Lucas Klein on China and Literary Modernism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1280px-2004_0928_Nanjing_ZhongHuaGate_HorseRamp2\"<\/a>C. Derick Varn of Former People: A Journal of Bangs and Whimpers<\/a><\/em> interviewed me with a series of complex questions on modernity and modernism in and about China. And of course, I couldn’t resist talking about Xi Chuan and Chinese and international poetry. Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the problem. But as I\u2019ve argued in a piece that\u2019s forthcoming, modernism in literature is postmodernist in its philosophical implications … And I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever believed in modernism so much as modernisms. An interesting observation is that modernist writers who come from countries that claim an ownership of tradition\u2014modernists from France or Italy or Russia\u2014are often the ones to say, like Marinetti, \u201cMuseums, cemeteries!\u201d while the modernists from countries that cannot claim such ownership\u2014Pound and Eliot from the US, Joyce from Ireland\u2014are the ones who want to revivify the ancient amidst the machinations of the modern (this isn\u2019t foolproof, of course: William Carlos Williams and Gertrude Stein stand against such generalizations). As for whether there\u2019s a Chinese modernism, the interesting thing is that after the Cultural Revolution, you get both: those feeling like their country has too much a claim on tradition, and is overwhelmed and stifled by it, as well as those who feel like their country is too displaced from tradition, and needs to re-own it and re-define it. So at any given moment Bei Dao might read like a shrugging off of tradition, and Yang Lian might read like a refitting of it, and Xi Chuan a refitting of that refitting, but they\u2019re also specific responses to the relationship between tradition and modernity as have played out in China in the past hundred years and more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image above for the full feature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C. Derick Varn of Former People: A Journal of Bangs and Whimpers interviewed me with a series of complex questions on modernity and modernism in and about China. And of course, I couldn’t resist talking about Xi Chuan and Chinese … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[50,1242,38,1243,1054,1049,315,1654,21],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-AK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4695,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4695","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":0},"title":"Krenz on Chinese Poetic Modernisms edited by Lupke and Manfredi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Joanna Krenz on Chinese Poetic Modernisms MCLC has published Joanna Krenz\u2019s review of Chinese Poetic Modernisms (Brill, 2019), edited by Paul Manfredi and Christopher Lupke, which includes my chapter \u201cAnnotating Aporias of History: the \u2018International Style\u2019, Chinese Modernism, and World Literature in Xi Chuan\u2019s Poetry.\u201d She writes: one need only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/u.osu.edu\/mclc\/files\/2019\/11\/31cBxX1bSoL._SX326_BO1204203200_-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":613,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=613","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":1},"title":"More China Daily on Xi Chuan [a\/k\/a “Xichuan”]","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Under the title \"None the verse\" (a headline I first found lame, but after a bit more reflection find reveals something interesting about Xi Chuan's writing) is another China Daily article on Xi Chuan and his career in poetry. It took me so long to find it because it refers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"None the verse","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/usa\/attachement\/jpg\/site181\/20091020\/2009-10-20_6286.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":313,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=313","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":2},"title":"Xi Chuan in Hongkong","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night the International Poetry Nights hosted a banquet dinner at the China Club, at the top of the old Bank of China building. Here's a picture of me and Xi Chuan, with the new Bank of China Tower in the background: Xi Chuan will be part of the panel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Poetry Nights"","block_context":{"text":"International Poetry Nights","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/XC-LK-China-Club-view.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/XC-LK-China-Club-view.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/XC-LK-China-Club-view.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4052,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4052","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":3},"title":"Mair on Zero Distance Anthology","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Translator Denis Mair reviews Liang Yujing's Zero Distance: New Poetry from China (Tinfish) for the International Examiner: In the late 90s and early years of the new millennium, a polemical battle between \u201cintellectual writing\u201d and \u201cpopulist writing\u201d unfolded on Chinese websites ... The populist camp was interested in developing China\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iexaminer.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/for-online-14.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":353,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=353","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":4},"title":"BBC: When borrowing from China makes the US richer","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan were on their reading tour of the US promoting the Copper Canyon anthology Push Open the Window, the BBC caught up with them and interviewed them about Chinese poetry. On the 3rd of November they posted the article and video, titled \"When borrowing from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Xi_Chuan_BBC.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Xi_Chuan_BBC.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Xi_Chuan_BBC.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4477,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4477","url_meta":{"origin":2278,"position":5},"title":"Xi Chuan on Poetry and the Relationship between China and the West","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-d3_5lAT6MU Xi Chuan speaking at the Antipodean China workshop 23 November 2017","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/-d3_5lAT6MU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}