He will give a reading of his work at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. Bei Dao will read his poems in Chinese, which will then be rendered into English by essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger. Bei Dao also will participate in a discussion of literary translation at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, in the Terrace Room of Building 460. At noon that day he will sign copies of his books at the Stanford Bookstore, and at 4 p.m. discuss his work at the Cantor Arts Center auditorium.
All events are free and open to the public.
Born in 1949 in Beijing, Bei Dao came from a traditional middle-class Shanghai family. He joined the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, but became disillusioned with the movement and was sent to the countryside to work in construction. Living in isolation in the mountains apparently prompted him and many of his peers to explore a more spiritual approach to life. By 1974, he had finished the first draft of his novella Waves and begun a series of poems that would become a beacon for youth involved in the April Fifth Democracy Movement of 1976, when thousands demonstrated peacefully in Beijing's Tienanmen Square. Writing about the nature of the self, Bei Dao's work depicted the intimacy of passion, love and friendship in a society where trust could be a matter of life and death.