BEI DAO, POET
Born in Beijing in 1949, Bei Dao is one of the most gifted writers in modern China. He became, in the 1970s, the poetic voice of his generation and has gained international acclaim over the last decades for his haunting interior poetic landscapes; his poetry is translated and published in some twenty-five languages around the world. 1n 1978, he co-founded the first unofficial literary journal since 1949 called Today (Jintian), which became a prominent forum for “Misty Poets,” a group derided by the Communist literary establishment for their of “obscure” language and their departure from socialist realism. Since 1987, Bei Dao has lived and taught in England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, and the United States. His work translated into thirty languages, including five poetry volumes in English Unlock (2000), Landscape Over Zero (1996), Forms of Distance (1994), Old Snow (1992), The August Sleepwalker (1990), the collection of stories Waves (1990) and the collections of essays Midnight' Gate (2005) and Blue House (2000). He won numerous awards, including Jeanette Schocken Literary Prize from Bremerhaven, Germany (2005), International Poetry Argana Award from the House of Poetry in Morocco (2002), Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN (1990). He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Bei Dao is seen as the figurehead of the first generation of poets in the People's Republic of China to free themselves from the orthodoxy of state-controlled literature. In 1989, he was accused of helping to incite the student revolt in Tienanmen Square: On the banners in the square had been his lines from the 1970s: "I will not kneel on the ground, / Allowing the executioners to look tall, / The better to obstruct the wind of freedom." Bei Dao was forced into exile. He, along with other exiled writers and artists, has found a voice in a renewed version of Jintian, which was re-launched in Stockholm in 1990 and became one of the influential forums for Chinese writers abroad.
Widely treasured by those who participated in China's democracy movement, Bei Dao's poetry is marked by the effort to reveal the nature of the self, to identify both public and private wounds, to trust in instinctive perceptions, and to reach out to other afflicted souls. It depicts the intimacy of passion, love, and friendship in a society where trust can literally be a matter of life and death. The Australian Sinologist Simon Patton, echoing the words of other reviewers of hermetic poetry, said about Bei Dao's work: 'The text compels attention, while it defies understanding.' It is an essential feature of Bei Dao's poetic art, which has by now won worldwide recognition. Bei Dao lives and teaches in the United States.
ABOUT MIDNIGHT'S GATE, Essays
“Knowledge of death is the only key that can open midnight's gate.” — Bei Dao
In Midnight's Gate, Bei Dao redefines the essay form with the same elliptical precision of his poetry, but with an openness and humor that complements the complexity of his poems. The twenty essays of Midnight's Gate form a travelogue of a poet who has lived in some seven countries since his exile from China in 1989. The work carries us from Palestine to Sacramento. At one point we are led into a basement in Paris for a production of Gorky's Lower Depths, the next moment we are in the mountains of China where Bei Dao worked for eleven years as a concrete mixer and ironworker. The subjective experience deepens and multiplies in these essays, filled with the stories of ordinary Chinese immigrants, as well as those of literary, artistic, and political figures. And it all coheres with a poet's observations, meditations, and memories.
