{"id":3266,"date":"2015-09-10T09:30:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T01:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2015-09-10T09:08:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T01:08:26","slug":"yi-fen-chou-the-welfare-queen-of-american-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3266","title":{"rendered":"Yi-Fen Chou, the Welfare Queen of American Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"regan\"<\/a>Because it’s broadly related to Chinese poetry as understood in English, I wrote something about the recent Best American Poetry <\/em>controversy, published at Drunken Boat<\/em><\/a>, titled “Yi-Fen Chou: Michael Derrick Hudson and\/or Ronald Reagan.”<\/p>\n

Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

Ezra Pound\u2019s \u201cThe River-Merchant\u2019s Wife: A Letter\u201d is a translation of a poem by medieval Chinese poet Li Bai \u674e\u767d, and was part of the redefinition of Chinese poetry and Chinese culture in English in the early twentieth century. The Love Poems of Marichiko<\/em>, presented as translations of young Japanese woman\u2019s poetry but which Rexroth admitted to writing after he was nominated for a translation prize, were an attempt at an imagined empathy with a cultural other, the poems narrating a passion with an unknown lover that dissolves boundaries as the passion dissolves as well. And the Araki Yasusada phenomenon undermined our prevailing notions of authorship to expose and critique the cultural double standards at work in the American poetry industry. Yi-Fen Chou, on the other hand, looks motivated by a desire to take advantage of the prevailing notions of authorship and our double standards in the American poetry industry. And this is why I\u2019m thinking of Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The Reagan era was when American poetry of all stripes turned inward, as if mirroring not only the government\u2019s xenophobia, but its configuring of trade into a neo-liberal assertion of American dominance, now called globalization. Not that American foreign policy before Reagan had been anything to be proud of, but poets had responded to the Vietnam War by translating more (as they would in the Bush II era, reacting against war by increasing their curiosity about the outside world); in the years afterward the Me Decade took over American poetry, as well, and American poets wrote best about their own personal me<\/em>. Hudson says \u201che did briefly consider trying to make Yi-Fen into a \u2018persona\u2019 or \u2018heteronym\u2019 \u00e0 la Fernando Pessoa, but nothing ever came of it.\u201d That, at least, would have been interesting, and related his pseudonym to his poetry. As is, both his lack of interest in engaging with the culture he names and his use of a minority name to get published make him the poetic equivalent of the domestic and international policies of the Reagan presidency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

Because it’s broadly related to Chinese poetry as understood in English, I wrote something about the recent Best American Poetry controversy, published at Drunken Boat, titled “Yi-Fen Chou: Michael Derrick Hudson and\/or Ronald Reagan.” Here’s an excerpt: Ezra Pound\u2019s \u201cThe … 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":[1643,38,1648,1647,30,322,508,1642,1645,1646,1644],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-QG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=38","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":0},"title":"Xi Chuan on Tagore and Modern Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just came across the following video, a lecture by Xi Chuan in English from Spring, 2009, to the Columbia University Alumni Association in Beijing. He discusses the relationship between Xu Zhimo \u5f90\u5fd7\u6469 and Rabindranath Tagore in the context of China, India, and the West and their impact on modern\u2026","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\/EXzoF_StHIU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=580","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":1},"title":"Xi Chuan on Tagore and Modern Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of the recently-concluded India-China Writers Dialogues, here's a re-post from October 7, in the earliest days of the Notes on the Mosquito blog: I just came across the following video, a lecture by Xi Chuan in English from Spring, 2009, to the Columbia University Alumni Association in Beijing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "India-China Writers Dialogues"","block_context":{"text":"India-China Writers Dialogues","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=282"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/EXzoF_StHIU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2890,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2890","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":2},"title":"Hamill’s Crossing the Yellow River Reviewed","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"John Bradley has reviewed Sam Hamill's Crossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese (Tiger Bark Press) at Rain Taxi. He writes: What is about Chinese poetry, especially the poetry of the T\u2019ang Dynasty (618-907 CE), that has drawn so many translators over the years, such as Ezra\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":3946,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3946","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":3},"title":"Asian American Writers’ Workshop recommends Asian Literature","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Asian American Writers' Workshop has collected recommendations from noted American writers and publishers for what to read of Asian literature. And unsurprisingly, Chinese poets and poetry are well-represented. Barbara Epler, president of New Directions publishing, recommends Li Shangyin and Bei Dao, among others. She writes: I am torn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aaww.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/collage.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":800,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=800","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":4},"title":"Ocean of Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I just found out about Ocean of Poetry, a new website featuring all sorts of information and examples of classical Chinese poetry in English translation, edited by Stuart Carduner and translator J. P. Seaton. The translation of classical Chinese poetry over the past century has contributed to the development of\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":14,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=14","url_meta":{"origin":3266,"position":5},"title":"Dialog on Poetry and Poetics: Chinese \/ American Poetry Conference","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing from Wuhan \u6b66\u6c49, where we've just wrapped up the CAAP conference titled and celebration of Marjorie Perloff's 80th birthday, with keynote speakers Charles Bernstein, Kenneth Goldsmith, and Chung Ling\u00a0\u937e\u73b2 (who translated two books of classical Chinese poetry with Kenneth Rexroth in the '70s). 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