Engagement and Integration: The Post-Exile Poetics of Bei Dao (2014)

exile of words has begun- Untitled, 1989, OslJThe students using my poem [The Answer] in Tiananmen Square gives me very complex mixture of feelings. On one hand, of course, I feel incredible pride. But on the other hand, I also feel quite strange because this popularization of poetry on mass level makes me feel doubt as to what this sort of usage means. I think of myself as nonconformist but not revolutionary. It makes me feel that the meaning of my poem may be misunderstood. Especially by Western audiences. I don't see myself as representative of such-and-such trend or political opinion. I see myself as an individual who is trying to create new form of language, new of expression.3Bei Dao (penname of Zhao Zhenkai, 1949-), one of the most renowned Chinese contemporary poets who was exiled from China after the 1989 Tiananmen Student Movement, gave his personal re-evaluation of The Answer in his exile as shown above, which I believe helps to illuminate his changing post-exile poetics. His progression from the pre-exile rebellious effort to post-exile poetics is, as I would like to propose, double and integration to form new language and mode of expression. Such view diverges from scholar Dian Li (author of Chinese Poetry of Bei DAO, 1978-2000: Resistance and Exile, Edwin Mellen Press, 2006) who maintains that Bei Dao's post-exilic poetry continued his rebellion, not against an oppressive political power but against himself as a person and poet in reaction to the transformative influence of his exilic experience.4I believe Bei Dao's post-exile poetic language, firstly, increasingly engages his own cultural Chineseness-the Chinese literary and linguistic traditions, including idioms and literary quotations-before proceeding to integrate such Chineseness into universal setting, gamering strength to transcend the borders and restrictive exclusivities of different cultures and traditions. Next, contrary to many critics' views,5 Bei Dao's poetic content does not shy away from official Chineseness-the hegemonic and previously-omnipresent Chinese political insinuations-but engages images of official Chineseness and integrates them as an underlying reciprocal action for his humanistic poetics. In fact, as we shall examine, these two aspects of Chineseness-cultural and official-are actually closely related as the engagement of cultural Chineseness helps to integrate (directly and indirectly) official Chineseness, and vice-versa.The reasons for the transformation of the nature of Bei Dao's poetics from rebellious to enveloping and embracing are complicated. most prominent reason is of course his experience of exile. A violent separation from one's homeland, daily habits, culture and language creates psychological void that keeps expanding in its desire to be filled. Bei Dao's way of filling this void was writing.Secondly, Bei Dao needed to continue writing after 1989, not only to justify his professional positions as writer-in-residence or professor in creative writing, but also for practical reasons-to support himself and his family. Hence, when he found himself in an entirely foreign literary field particularly dependent on institutions and grant-awarding bodies, he adapted by not repeating his double rebellion, possibly due to ennui, his desire for self-renewal, or even his apprehension of readers' presuppositions of him. Instead, he returned to his roots of Chineseness to find new foundation for his exilic poetry. In the highly market-oriented foreign literary field, his poetry can then stand out as one which can perform to the foreign consumer, not with currency invested straight from Chinese traditions, but as revised and revitalised poetics for universal market.Thirdly, the technique of Mistiness in Bei Dao's poetics serves as ready platform for embracing Chineseness and other foreign influences in exile. …