{"id":3757,"date":"2017-05-15T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T01:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3757"},"modified":"2017-05-11T11:25:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T03:25:20","slug":"wenguang-huang-on-bei-daos-city-gate-open-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3757","title":{"rendered":"Wenguang Huang on Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In “A Poet Who Survived Mao,” Wenguang Huang reviews City Gate, Open Up<\/em> \u57ce\u95e8\u5f00, the new memoir by Bei Dao \u5317\u5c9b, for the Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>. Huang writes:<\/p>\n

In 18 essays, crafted with poetic precision and enriched by Jeffrey Yang\u2019s assiduous translation, Bei Dao depicts a cast of memorable characters with humor and insight: a tenacious family nanny always on the lookout for revolutionary opportunities; a talented schoolmate who sneaked across the border to Burma to join guerrilla forces; and the author\u2019s father, a former government propaganda official and a moody authoritarian at home. Bei Dao devotes a long chapter to the universal theme of a troubled father-son relationship.
\n…
\n\u201cCity Gate, Open Up\u201d made me want to retrieve my old college journal filled with the poet\u2019s quotable stanzas. When I called my family back in China, however, I found out that it had been tossed out long ago. \u201cThere\u2019s no room for old stuff,\u201d a family member said indifferently. That now seems to be the national slogan. It only makes Bei Dao\u2019s book more poignant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

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 … 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":[50,1837,45,1162],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-YB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4043,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4043","url_meta":{"origin":3757,"position":0},"title":"October Dedications by Mang Ke","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Announcing October Dedications, the selected poems of Mang Ke \u8292\u514b, edited and translated by Lucas Klein, with further translations by Huang Yibing and Jonathan Stalling\u2014part of the Jintian series jointly published by Zephyr and The Chinese University Press. Mang Ke (b. 1950, penname of Jiang Shiwei \u59dc\u4e16\u4f1f) began writing poetry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Publications"","block_context":{"text":"Publications","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chineseupress.com\/image\/cache\/data\/books\/initial\/9789629965501-500x730.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3847,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3847","url_meta":{"origin":3757,"position":1},"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":3757,"position":2},"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":2787,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2787","url_meta":{"origin":3757,"position":3},"title":"Video of Ouyang Jianghe reading from Phoenix","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/U8Qjg6H1ddA The write-up from Paul Manfredi's China Avantgarde blog: Ouyang Jianghe's \u6b27\u9633\u6c5f\u6cb3 poem was inspired by a sculptural work of the same title by Xu Bing \u5f90\u51b0. 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