From the Beijing Spring of 1979 until the student uprisings of 1989 a new generation of poets flourished in China. Influenced by Western Modernism and increasingly daring in their challenges to state control of their art, these poets disguised political protest and social commentary in shadowy images and metaphors, earning them the name "Misty Poets." Rejecting the Social Realism prescribed by Maoist doctrine, they celebrated subjective experience and individuality, ushering in a new era of artistic expression that has been dampened but not extinguished by the Tiananmen Square massacre. This new anthology is the most comprehensive English sampling available of the work of the Misty Poets and their even younger proteges, many of whom now live in exile in the West, where they continue to reshape Chinese poetry and Literature.
Editor Tony Barnstone offers a generous and representative sample of the work of more than a dozen poets. From more familiar writers such as Bei Dao and Duo Duo to such emerging figures as Zhang Zhen, Bei Ling, and Chou Ping (who composes many of his poems in English), these poets characterize the vibrant reawakening of Chinese poetry. Barnstone's substantial critical introduction places the poets in their cultural, historical, and political context.