{"id":3035,"date":"2015-02-23T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T01:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2015-01-25T22:37:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T14:37:26","slug":"heather-inwood-at-china-digital-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3035","title":{"rendered":"Heather Inwood at China Digital Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heather<\/a>The China Digital Times <\/a>interviews Heather Inwood over her new book, Verse Going Viral <\/em>(University of Washington Press, 2014). Here’s a sample Q & A:<\/p>\n

CDT: <\/i><\/b>Your book addresses the question of whether Chinese poetry is a \u201cliterature in crisis\u201d in a \u201cpoetry country.\u201d Other nations also pride themselves on their poetic traditions but scorn contemporary poetry. Do you see any parallels between the struggles of poetry communities in China and in other countries, such as the UK?<\/i><\/p>\n

Inwood: <\/b>The \u201cdeath of poetry\u201d has been a recurring theme for many years in most parts of the world; China is by no means alone in worrying about the state of the nation of poetry … Equally, in every instance this turns out to be simply not true: people will always write poetry, regardless of who is reading or listening or what other media temptations may exist, and as long as poetry is being written it will be continue to be relevant to lives around the world.<\/p>\n

What makes China such an interesting case study is that modern poetry was a part of mainstream culture as recently as the 1980s, when poets like Gu Cheng and Shu Ting were seen as national celebrities\u2013at least among a significant portion of China\u2019s educated population. Up until just over 100\u00a0years ago, the importance of poetry was institutionalized through its inclusion in the civil service examinations, meaning that poetry was not just a highly respected art form and way of life, but also a direct channel to employment in the highest levels of the imperial bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

This enduring association between poetry and elite society is another reason why poetry\u2019s loss of readership in the last couple of decades has been felt so keenly in China. It also explains the ongoing efforts of writers and critics to expand the social reach of poetry, for example by advocating the poetry of migrant workers (\u6253\u5de5\u8bd7\u6b4c<\/em> dagong shige<\/i>) or championing \u201cpopular\u201d (\u6c11\u95f4<\/em> minjian<\/i>) poetry over \u201cintellectual writing\u201d (\u77e5\u8bc6\u5206\u5b50\u5199\u4f5c<\/em> zhishi fenzi xiezuo<\/i>), as we saw in the late 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click on the image for the full interview.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The China Digital Times interviews Heather Inwood over her new book, Verse Going Viral (University of Washington Press, 2014). Here’s a sample Q & A: CDT: Your book addresses the question of whether Chinese poetry is a \u201cliterature in crisis\u201d … 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],"tags":[130,784,127],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-MX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2605,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2605","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":0},"title":"Heather Inwood: In China today, does poetry still matter?","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In advance of her Verse Going Viral: China\u2019s New Media Scenes, Heather Inwood blogs for University of Washington Press on the place of poetry in China today. Here's how she concludes: Yet the move toward accessibility hasn\u2019t always pleased the public. Making written poetry sound like everyday speech was supposed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2609,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2609","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":1},"title":"Heather Inwood’s Verse Going Viral","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New from University of Washington Press--Heather Inwood's Verse Going Viral: China\u2019s New Media Scenes. Verse Going Viral examines what happens when poetry, a central pillar of traditional Chinese culture, encounters an era of digital media and unabashed consumerism in the early twenty-first century. Heather Inwood sets out to unravel a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3320,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3320","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":2},"title":"Heather Inwood on Chinese Poetry in the Age of the Internet","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The newest issue of Chinese Literature Today features Heather Inwood on \"Poetry for the People? Modern Chinese Poetry in the Age of the Internet.\" Here's a pull quote: In China, existing discussions of media gatekeeping focus overwhelmingly on questions related to free speech and government censorship. It is important to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ou.edu\/clt\/05-01\/images\/inwood-Verse-Going-Viral.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1325","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":3},"title":"Heather Inwood on Yi Sha","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Heather Inwood of Ohio State University has written an introduction to the work of Yi Sha \u4f0a\u6c99, \"lower-body\" \u4e0b\u534a\u8eab and \"post-colloquial writing\"\u00a0\u540e\u53e3\u8bed\u5199\u4f5c poet. Here's a sample of what she says: Although his profession as a writer and a college professor makes Yi Sha an intellectual in his own right, his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ou.edu\/clt\/02-02\/images\/Yi-Sha_2007TinekeDeLange.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2666,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2666","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":4},"title":"Power to the People? Heather Inwood on Contemporary Chinese Poetry at HKU","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This paper adopts a cultural studies lens to examine the often fraught relationship between China\u2019s poetry scenes and members of the public, exploring key media dynamics and social practices that shape the writing, publication, and reception of modern Chinese poetry in the age of the Internet. I argue that so-called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3771,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3771","url_meta":{"origin":3035,"position":5},"title":"Stand interview with Chinese Poetry Translators","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The current issue of Stand magazine features an interview with Chinese poetry translators Eleanor Goodman, Canaan Morse, and Heather Inwood--and the translations they've curated for the issue. In answer to the question \"What kind of poetry translates best and is any simply \u2018untranslatable\u2019?\" Morse writes: CM: Let\u2019s not wrongly ascribe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035"}],"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=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3037,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}