Twentieth-century Chinese Women's Poetry: An Anthology

An Anthology

Julia C. Lin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317453192
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Macroeconomics
• Index: Economics

Chinese women's writing is rich and abundant, although not well known in the West. Despite the brutal wars and political upheavals that ravaged twentieth-century China, the ranks of women in the literary world increased dramatically. This anthology introduces English language readers to a comprehensive selection of Chinese women poets from both the mainland and Taiwan. It spans the early 1920s and the era of Republican China's literary renaissance through the end of the twentieth century. The collection includes 245 poems by forty poets in elegant English translations, as well as an extensive introduction that surveys the history of contemporary Chinese women's poetry. Brief biographical head notes introduce each poet, from Bin Xin, China's preeminent woman poet in the early Republican period, to Rongzi, a leading poet of modern Taiwan. The selections are startling, moving, and wide-ranging in mood and tone. Together they present an enticing palette of delightful, elegant, playful, lyric, and tragic poetry.

Part I

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Poets From China

BING XIN / PING HSIN

(1900–1999)

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Pen name Xie Wan-ying. Generally considered to be the pioneering first woman poet in modern China, Bing Xin was a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province. After her graduation from the Xiehe Woman’s College in Fuzhou she became very active in the New Culture Movement, which ushered in the May Fourth Movement of 1919. She also began her literary career at this time. In 1923 she left China to study for an advanced degree at Wellesley College in the United States. After receiving her MA degree, Bing Xin returned to China to teach at Yanjing, Qinghua, and other universities. Her numerous publications include two books of poetry: Myriad Stars (1923) and Spring Water (1923). She has also translated the poetry of Tagore and Kahlil Gibran.

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Myriad Stars: No. 23

The soul’s lantern shines

in quiescence, goes

dark with noises.

Myriad Stars, No. 34

The creators of the new continent

are not those roaring waves,

but the minuscule sands beneath them.

Myriad Stars, No. 96

Shadows fall into the water,

sentences fall into the heart,

all leave behind no trace.

Myriad Stars, No. 100

Midnight—

the universe steeped in dream

Am I, the lone waker,

a somebody in that dream?

Myriad Stars, No. 124

Ah “flaws”! “Perfection”

needs you, among

the countless yous

to show off himself.

1922

Spring Water: No. 24

Ah, little island!

where does your prominence come to light?

where countless peaks

sink deep into the sea!

Spring Water, No. 37

Oh great void!

take off your web of stars,

let me admire your radiant face.

Spring Water, No. 65

Only a star by itself, that’s all!

yet within this dark

it has written everything lonely in the universe.

Spring Water, No. 176

Ah you tiny flowers on the battlefield

your deepest love is praised

to bloom among so many bullets, bravely,

to comfort the new bones.

1922

LIN HUIYIN / LIN HUI-YIN

(1904–1955)

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Though a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, Lin grew up in Beijing. When she was sixteen years old she accompanied her scholar/diplomat father abroad. She was enrolled in a British girls’ school in London in 1921. Her friendship with Xu Zhimo, one of the leading poets of China and then residing in London, probably inspired her to try her hand at writing poetry. She received a BA in fine arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1927. She also studied design at Yale University. Talented in the arts, Lin nevertheless chose to pursue a career in architecture. She and her husband, Liang Sicheng, a leading Chinese architect, had made important discoveries of a sequence of surviving Chinese monumental structures and pioneered the scientific study of architectural development in China. Despite ill health and her architectural career, Lin continued to write poetry. Most of her poems were written in the thirties and forties; they were published in various literary journals and newspapers and were widely anthologized. They established her as one of the celebrated pioneering woman poets in...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: Poets from China
• Part II: Poets from Taiwan
• Index of Poets
• About the Translator