{"id":3647,"date":"2017-03-15T09:30:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T01:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3647"},"modified":"2017-03-15T09:15:39","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T01:15:39","slug":"publishers-weekly-on-bei-daos-memoirs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3647","title":{"rendered":"Publishers Weekly on Bei Dao’s Memoirs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"City<\/a>Publishers Weekly<\/a><\/em> has a brief review of Bei Dao’s \u5317\u5c9b memoirs about growing up in Beijing, City Gate, Open Up<\/em> \u57ce\u95e8\u5f00, translated by Jeffrey Yang (forthcoming from New Directions). It reads:<\/p>\n

In this ruminative, lyrical memoir, revered Chinese poet Bei Dao (The Rose of Time<\/em>) reflects on his father, the Beijing of his youth, and China\u2019s Cultural Revolution. Returning to Beijing after over two decades away, including 13 years of exile from China, the poet was inspired to record his memories of a city he found drastically altered, reflecting on an idyllic childhood of hide-and-seek and ghost stories. He captures the unique timbres of street peddlers, and remembers treasuring a bowl of wonton soup during the Great Famine. There are comic tales as well: two rival cultural discussion groups coming to blows over a Paganini record; a protest of the middle school cafeteria\u2019s less-than-stringent sanitation standards led by the poet as a swaggering youth. As he reached adulthood, the Revolution cast a pall: the Red Guards confiscated \u201ccounterrevolutionary\u201d materials, and beatings and suicides became routine. In the final pages, Bei Dao recalls his complicated relationship with his father, whose illness brought Bei Dao back to Beijing after so many years. This is a nuanced account of China in the era of the Cultural Revolution, seen through one young man\u2019s eyes. Since that young man became a poet, it is also beautifully textured, full of the sounds, sights, and scents of a Beijing that is no more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And for an excerpt from the memoir, see The Manchester Review<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Around age six or seven I composed a musical invention: to the sounds of car horns I hummed a tune in counterpoint. Together these two sounds defined the metropolis for me. As dream became reality, the proliferating noises of the metropolis (particularly the sounds of drills and jackhammers) tormented me to madness; after many long nights of fleeting sleep, I ultimately concluded that to the children of our agricultural empire, the so-called metropolis, the great city, has had little relation to their verbal creativity…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

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

Publishers Weekly has a brief review of Bei Dao’s \u5317\u5c9b memoirs about growing up in Beijing, City Gate, Open Up \u57ce\u95e8\u5f00, translated by Jeffrey Yang (forthcoming from New Directions). It reads: In this ruminative, lyrical memoir, revered Chinese poet Bei … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,45],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-WP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3777,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3777","url_meta":{"origin":3647,"position":0},"title":"Gewirtz on Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Poetry Foundation has published \"Bei Dao\u2019s Beijing: The eminent Chinese poet on exile and his native city,\" Julian Gewirtz's review of City Gate, Open Up, the newly published memoirs of Bei Dao \u5317\u5c9b, translated by Jeffrey Yang. The review also\u00a0weaves in decades of Bei Dao\u2019s poetry, creating a compelling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/media.poetryfoundation.org\/m\/image\/14859","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3854,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3854","url_meta":{"origin":3647,"position":1},"title":"Turner on Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The World of Chinese has run Matt Turner's informative review of Bei Dao's City Gate, Open Up, \"Goodbye, Beijing.\" Turner begins with pennamed Bei Dao's birth and name: Construction worker, underground publisher, and acclaimed poet, Zhao Zhenkai (\u8d75\u632f\u5f00) was born, in his own words, in 1949, \u201cas Chairman Mao declared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theworldofchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/goodbye-master.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3847,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3847","url_meta":{"origin":3647,"position":2},"title":"ARB on Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"London-based poet Jennifer Wong's review of\u00a0City Gate, Open Up, by Bei Dao \u5317\u5cf6 and translated by Jeffrey Yang, is now up at\u00a0Asian Review of Books. \"Born and raised in Beijing,\" the review begins, \"Bei Dao spent decades in exile in Europe because of his alleged involvement in the Tiananmen Massacre\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":2783,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2783","url_meta":{"origin":3647,"position":3},"title":"Jeffrey Yang wins NEA Fellowship to Translate Bei Dao Memoirs","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Endowment for the Arts announced their Literary Translation Fellowships recently, with one of the fellowships going to Jeffrey Yang for his translation of City Gate Open Up \u57ce\u9580\u958b, a \"lyrical autobiography\" by Bei Dao \u5317\u5cf6. Here is the NEA's announcement: A $25,000 fellowship to Jeffrey Yang (Beacon, NY)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/large-620\/public\/Literature%20Translation%20Publication%20Cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3757,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3757","url_meta":{"origin":3647,"position":4},"title":"Wenguang Huang on Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In \"A Poet Who Survived Mao,\" Wenguang Huang reviews City Gate, Open Up \u57ce\u95e8\u5f00, the new memoir by Bei Dao \u5317\u5c9b, for the Wall Street Journal. Huang writes: In 18 essays, crafted with poetic precision and enriched by Jeffrey Yang\u2019s assiduous translation, Bei Dao depicts a cast of memorable characters\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":3647,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647"}],"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=3647"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3649,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions\/3649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}