{"id":431,"date":"2011-11-30T08:49:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T00:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=431"},"modified":"2011-11-30T08:49:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T00:49:54","slug":"in-the-shadow-of-the-oxymoron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"“In the Shadow of the Oxymoron”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have referred a couple of times (here <\/a>and here<\/a>) to Xi Chuan’s poetics of the oxymoron, and how it’s related to current Chinese realities, so I thought I would link to an essay where he begins verbalizing such formulations. Xi Chuan wrote “In the Shadow of the Oxymoron<\/a>” in English for the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program for the Home \/ Land<\/em> Symposium<\/a> on the island of Paros, Greece, in May 2008. Here’s an excerpt:<\/p>\n

Some thirty years ago, people in China said \u201cleft is right and right is wrong.\u201d Now, to live in the shadow of oxymoron means therefore to live with embarrassment; it means to enjoy a happiness that is absurd.<\/p>\n

But to speak in oxymorons means that you are a person who is not going to be understood. I am not using a term like \u201ccontradiction\u201d because contradictions are yet to be blended, whereas the social oxymoron is now a reality. Yes I do know concepts such as freedom, justice, love, privacy, equality, democracy, literacy, elite, etc.\u2014but these quasi-saturated concepts are stronger and more popular. The reason why things are going like this is probably the result of an overdone revolution meeting a half-done modernization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have referred a couple of times (here and here) to Xi Chuan’s poetics of the oxymoron, and how it’s related to current Chinese realities, so I thought I would link to an essay where he begins verbalizing such formulations. … 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":[3,12,16,1,7],"tags":[226,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-6X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":838,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=838","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":0},"title":"CBC Radio Interview with Xi Chuan","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"An excellent interview with Xi Chuan done a couple years ago by Eleanor Wachtel of the Canadian Broadcasting Company has just been released online, in advance of tomorrow's release of Notes on the Mosquito. Click the icon above to listen to Xi Chuan explain the complexities of China today, his\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":680,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=680","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":1},"title":"Miroslav Kirin’s Xi Chuan translations on Croatian Radio 3","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Miroslav Kirin read his Croatian translations of Xi Chuan--done from my English versions--on Croatian Radio 3. Click here to listen to the show. (I don't know Croatian, but I can make out a few names and terms--my name, Xi Chuan, New Directions, Du Fu \u675c\u752b, Wang Wei \u738b\u7dad,\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":3652,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3652","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":2},"title":"Stephen Procter on Xi Chuan & the Contradictory Aesthetics of Revolution","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The PN Review has published Stephen Procter's article on Xi Chuan, \"Xi Chuan & the Contradictory Aesthetics of Revolution.\" Procter writes: While potentially a contradiction might be logically fertile, assisting in the discovery of meaning, the indissolubility of the oxymoron must simply be accepted, with no meaning being made to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/811513661680394240\/CB0sEUlb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":674,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=674","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":3},"title":"Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture on Xi Chuan","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple months ago I linked to the Xi Chuan Wikipedia page in German, and mentioned that no one had written a Wikipedia entry for him in English. I also linked to the\u00a0Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture entry on him, written by poet \/ translator \/ scholar Huang Yibing \u9ec3\u4ea6\u5175\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":532,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=532","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":4},"title":"Time Out Mumbai on the India-China Writers Dialogue","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Time Out Mumbai has an article on next week's India-China Writers Dialogue, titled \"Sino the Times.\" Despite the lame title, it's actually an informative write-up. Here's the paragraph where Xi Chuan is quoted: The dialogues are \u201cnot American workshop-like\u201d, agreed poet Xi Chuan, who has studied in the US and\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4472,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4472","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":5},"title":"Xi Chuan wins Sweden’s Cikada Prize","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cikada Prize 2018 is awarded to the Chinese poet Xi Chuan! Founded in 2004 to commemorate the 100th birthday of Swedish poet and Nobel laureate Harry Martinson, the Cikada Prize is given to East Asian poets whose work \u201cdefend the inviolability of life.\u201d They write: This year\u2019s winner is\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\/431"}],"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=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}