Chiang Yee

Chiang Yee , self-styled as "The Silent Traveller", was a poet, author, and .

1903-1933: China

Chiang Yee was born in Jiujiang, China, on a day variously recorded as May 19 or June 14. He married Tseng Yun in 1924, with whom he was to have four children, and in 1925 graduated from National Southeast University, now Nanjing University, not only one of the world's oldest institutions of learning but also relaunched in 1920 as China's first modern university. He served for over a year in the Chinese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, then taught chemistry in middle schools, lectured at National Chi-Nan University, and worked as assistant editor of a Hangzhou newspaper. He subsequently served as magistrate of three counties Unhappy with the situation in China then , he departed for England in 1933, leaving wife and family behind.

1933-1955: England

From 1933 to 1935 he taught Chinese at the University of London, and 1938 to 1940 worked at the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy and Pathology. During this period, he wrote a well-received series of books entitled ''The Silent Traveller in....''. His first was ''The Silent Traveller: a Chinese Artist in Lakeland'', written from a journal of a fortnight in the English Lake District in August 1936). Others followed: The Silent Traveller in London, the Yorkshire Dales, and Oxford. Despite paper shortages and rationing, these books were kept in print. He wrote ''The Silent Traveller in Wartime'', and, after World War II ended, the series gradually ventured further afield, to Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Boston, concluding in 1972 with Japan.

Commentary on his writing: 1933-1955

The books characteristically bring a fresh 'sideways look' in a peaceful and non-judgemental way to places perhaps unfamiliar at the time to a Chinese national: the author was struck by things the locals might not notice, such as beards, or the fact that the so-called Lion's Haunch on in Edinburgh is actually far more like a sleeping elephant. In his wartime books, Chiang Yee made it plain that he was fervently opposed to Nazism. His writings exude a feeling of positive curiosity, life-enhancing in a unique way. Some of his books have been re-issued in modern times, sometimes with fresh introductions.

1955-1975: United States

After living for some years in a small flat in London and being obliged, during the war, neither to travel nor to take part in the hostilities, on account of being classed as an 'alien', he moved to the United States in 1955, where he became a lecturer at Columbia University from 1955 to 1977, with an interlude in 1958 and 1959 during which he was Emerson Fellow in Poetry at Harvard University. He became a naturalized citizen in 1966. He illustrated all his books, including several for children, and he wrote a standard tome on .

1975-1977: China

He died in his seventies in China after spending over forty years away from his homeland, on a day variously recorded as in October 7 or 26, 1977.Chiang Yee's tomb is on the slopes of Lu-Shan above his home town; he is now part of the landscape and environment that influenced his painting over the years.

Survivors

Chiang Yee was survived by his eldest son, Chiang Chien-kuo who joined him in the UK after WWII. Chien-Kuo married and lived in Jersey, Channel Islands. He died in 2002 and was survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren. Chiang Yee's younger son, Chiang Chien-Fei, joined him in the USA in the 1960s, where he still lives with his wife and children in New England.

Chiang Yee's Works

The Silent Traveller series

*''The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland'' ISBN 1-84183-067-4
*''The Silent Traveller in London'' 6 impressions by 1945. ISBN 1-902669-40-1
*''The Silent Traveller in the Yorkshire Dales'' at least 3 editions by 1942. Not known if re-printed
*''The Silent Traveller in Oxford'' ISBN 1-902669-68-1
*''The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh'' ISBN 1-84183-048-8
*''The Silent Traveller in New York'',
*''The Silent Traveller in Dublin'',
*''The Silent Traveller in Paris''
*''The Silent Traveller in Boston''
*''The Silent Traveller in San Francisco'' ISBN 0-393-08422-1
*''The Silent Traveller in Japan'' ISBN 0-393-08642-9

Poetry

*''The Silent Traveller’s Hong Kong Zhuzhi Poems''

China: childhood and return

*''A Chinese Childhood''
*''China Revisted: After forty-two Years'' ISBN 0-393-08791-3

Painting and calligraphy

*''The Chinese Eye: An Interpretation of Chinese Painting'',
*''Chinese Calligraphy'',
*''Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique'' ISBN 0-674-12225-9

Other works

*''Chin-Pao and the Giant Pandas'',
*''The Men of the Burma Road''
*''Dabbitse'', for children
*''Yebbin: a Guest from the Wild'' ISBN 0-908240-87-2
*''The Story of Ming'',
*''Lo Cheng The Boy Who Wouldn′t Keep Still'',
*''Some Chinese Words to be learnt without a teacher'',

Illustrated only

*Innes Herdan , ''300 Tang Poems'', illustrated by Chiang Yee. ISBN 957-612-471-9

Resources about Chiang Yee

*Da Zheng, 'The Traveling of Art and the Art of Traveling: Chiang Yee's Painting and Chinese Cultural Tradition',
*Da Zheng, 'Writing of Home and Home of Writing', ''Comparative American Studies'', Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 488-505
*Janoff, Ronald, "Encountering Chiang Yee: A Western Insider Reading Response to Eastern Outsider Travel Writing"

Zhu Ziqing

Zhu Ziqing was a renowned poet and essayist. Zhu studied at Peking University, and during the May Fourth Movement became one of several pioneers of modernism in China during the 1920s. Later, he was appointed professor of Chinese Literature at Tsinghua University in 1925. From 1931 to 1932 he studied English Literature and Linguistics in London.

Zhu was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, but is best known for essays like "Retreating Figure" , and "You. Me." . His best known work in verse is the long poem: ''Huimie,'' ''Destruction.''

Yu Dafu

Yu Dafu . Born in Fuyang, Zhejiang, was a modern short story writer and poet.

Early years

Yu Dafu's father died at age three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a tradtional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Chronologically he studied in Jiangxing-Fu Middle School , Hangzhou-Fu Middle School, Yuying Academy .

In 1912, he entered Zhijiang University preparatory through examination. He was there only for a sort period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike .

He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals . Together, in 1921 they founded the ''Ch'ang-tsao she'' , which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works ''Ch'en-lun'', also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.

In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of ''Creation Quarterly'', editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.

In 1927, he worked as an editor of the ''Hong-shui'' literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese war

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war, he returned to China and worked as a writer of anti-Japanese propaganda in Hangzhou, and later in Zhejiang. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a literary editor for the newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore.

In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army , he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the as an intrepetor when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak .

In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.

Works

*''Ch'en-lun'' "''Sinking''"
*''Jih-chi chiu-chung'' “''Nine Diaries''”
*''Kuo-ch'ü'' “''The Past''"
*his first novel??
*his second novel??
*''Ch'u-pen'' "''Flight''"

His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was ''Jih-chi chiu-chung'' "''Nine Diaries''", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is ''Kuo-ch'u'' or "''The Past''", written in 1927, which is said to have psychological depth.

Xu Zhimo

Xu Zhimo was an early 20th century poet. He was given the name of Zhangxu and the courtesy name of Yousen . He later changed his courtesy name to Zhimo .

He is romanticized as pursuing love, freedom, and beauty all his life . He promoted the form of , and therefore made tremendous contributions to modern Chinese literature.

To commemorate Xu Zhimo, in July, 2008, a white marble stone has been installed at the back of King's College, University of Cambridge, on which is inscribed a verse from Xu's best-known poem, 'Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again'.

Brief Biography

Xu was born in . In 1918, after studying at Peking University, he traveled to the United States to study history in Clark University. Shortly afterwards, he transferred to Columbia University in New York to study economics and politics in 1919. Finding the States "intolerable", he left in 1920 to study at King's College, Cambridge in England, where he fell in love with English poetry like that of Keats and , and was also influenced by the French romantic and poets, some of whose works he translated into Chinese. In 1922 he went back to China and became a leader of the modern poetry movement.

When the Rabindranath Tagore visited China, Xu Zhimo played the part of oral interpreter. Xu's literary ideology was mostly pro-western, and pro-. He was one of the first Chinese writers to successfully naturalize Western romantic forms into modern Chinese poetry. He worked as an editor and professor at several schools before dying in a plane crash on November 19, 1931 in while flying from Nanjing to Beijing. He left behind four collections of verse and several volumes of translations from various languages.

Wen Yiduo

Wen Yiduo , born Wén Jiāhuá , courtesy name Yǒusān , was a Chinese poet and scholar.

Biography

Wen was born in Xishui County, Hubei. After receiving a traditional education he went on to continue studying at the Tsinghua University. In 1922, he traveled to the United States to study fine arts and literature in the Art Institute of Chicago. It was during this time that his first collection of poetry, ''Hongzhu'' , was published. In 1925, he traveled back to China and took a university teaching post. In 1928, his second collection, ''Sishui'' , was published. His poetry is influenced by Western models. In the same year he joined the Crescent Society and wrote essays on poetry, mostly stressing that poetry should have "formal properties". He also began to publish the results of his classical Chinese literature research.

At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , he moved to Kunming, Yunnan, and continued to teach in National Southwestern Associated University. He became politically active in 1944 and continued to be so until his death. His outspoken nature led to his assassination by secret agents of Kuomintang, right after attending a gathering on 15 July 1946 in Kunming.

Liu Bannong

Liu Bannong or Liu Fu was a linguist and poet.

A native of Jiangsu, he was an important contributor to the influential magazine ''La Jeunesse'' during the May Fourth Movement. He began to write poetry in vernacular Chinese in 1917, and was credited to have coined the Chinese feminine pronoun ''ta'' , which he used in his poems. The usage was popularised by the song ''Jiao Wo Ruhe Bu Xiang Ta'' , a "pop hit" in the 1930s in China, with the lyric written by him and the melody by Yuen Ren Chao.

In 1920, he left China for studying linguistics aboard, first London, then Paris. He gained his PhD at the University of Paris, with his experiments done on the Chinese s. During his stint in Paris, he compiled ''Dunhuang Duosuo'' , a pioneering work about the Dunhuang manuscripts.

He returned to China in 1925, and began to teach in colleges. He collaborated with Li Jiarui to compile ''Songyuan Yilai Suzi Pu'' . Published in 1930, it was a key work to the standardisation of simplified Chinese characters. He died of a sudden illness after a trip of linguistic fieldwork, at the age of 44. Lu Xun wrote a short memoir about Liu after his death.

Duo Duo

Duo Duo or Duoduo 多多 is the pen name of contemporary Chinese poet, Li Shizheng , one of the "Misty" or "Obscure" school of modern Chinese poetry . He was born in Beijing. As a youth in the Cultural Revolution, he was sent down to the countryside in Baiyangding , where he began reading and writing poetry. Several of his school mates would also become famous as members of underground poetry movement, described as Misty by the authorities: Bei Dao, Gu Cheng and Mang Ke. Duo Duo's early poems are short and elliptical, in which some see barbed political references. In his early poems, there are numerous intertextual links to Western poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Sylvia Plath. His style underwent a shift in the mid 1980's to longer, more philosophical poetry. In contrast to the clipped, image-based style of Bei Dao, Duo Duo tended to use longer, more flowing lines, and paid more attention to sound and rhetoric. Some of his poems border on the essayistic, such as the 1984 "Lessons" also translated as "Instruction", which spoke for China's "lost generation" as much as Bei Dao's "Answer".

In 1989 Duo Duo was witness to the and as fortune had it was booked on a plane on 4th June to London where he was due to give a poetry reading at the British Museum. He went on to live for many years in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. His poetic language went through another shift, taking up the themes of exile and rootlessness. In the absence of a Chinese-speaking community, Duo Duo began to use the Chinese language more self-consciously. Sometimes his poems border on the impenetrable, and yet are highly effective, such as the poem "Watching the Sea".

In 2004 Duo Duo returned to China where he was honored both by a younger generation of poets and by the literary establishment. He now teaches at Hainan University on the tropical Hainan Island where the Chinese poet Su Dongpo was once exiled by the Chinese authorities.

Translations

Translation of Duo Duo's poems into English by Gregory Lee

See Lee's web page for more on Duoduo:

Dai Wangshu

Dai Wangshu was a poet, essayist and translator active from the late 1920s to the end of the 1940s. A native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, he graduated from the , Shanghai in 1926, majoring in .

He was closely associated with the Shanghai Modernist school, also known as New Sensibility or New Sensation School, a name inspired by the Japanese modernist writer Riichi Yokomitsu. Other members of the group were Mu Shiying, Liu Na'ou, Shi Zhecun, and Du Heng, whose Third Category thesis , Dai defended against the hard line taken by the May Fourth Movement veteran Lu Xun.

Between 1932 and 1935 Dai studied in France, and published several poems in French. He collaborated in translating modern Chinese literature with French writer and academic René ?tiemble, and associated with such poets as Jules Supervielle.

During the , Dai worked in Hong Kong as a newspaper editor. He was arrested and put into jail for several months during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. After the war, he returned to Shanghai and then Beijing, and died there.

His early poetry has numerous inter-textual links with the French Neo-symbolist poetry of Paul Fort and, in particular, Francis Jammes; yet numerous references to pre-modern lyric texts can also be discerned in his early poems. Some scholars have assumed that this "symbolist influence" came from more well-known French poets such as Verlaine and Baudelaire. However, while Dai Wangshu and other poets in China knew Verlaine's work through the versions of the English symbolist Ernest Dowson, there is no evidence of an early close inter-textual relationship with Baudelaire. In the late 1940s, when he had returned from Europe, and already shifted from Neo-symbolism to a more generally modernist style , Dai did translate Baudelaire's ''Les Fleurs du mal'' into Chinese. Dai, who had visited Spain before the Spanish Civil War, was the first to translate the poetry of Federico García Lorca into Chinese.