would prefer to shed all the labels and just write poetry. "I'm not a political figure. I am considered a dissident writer but that is just a label. Just like the name given the misty poets, it is a label enforced on me," he said while in Toronto for its annual International Festival of Authors.
Bei Dao, whose real name is Zhao Zhenkai, explains that the name misty poetry was derived from official Chinese government criticism of his and other poets' use of language. To official critics, their poetry was obscure and complex, or misty. His language and style were not consistent with Mao-style discourse, which he described as "a very violent language."
"Our (the misty poets') work was a real departure from the standard social realism compared to poetry published after 1949 in which social realism was the dominant style, and that was really propaganda. Critics, by alluding to us as misty poets, were indicating that we had something to hide. By not being clear, our poetry was somehow dangerous," he explained.
Bei Dao has spent a lot of time thinking about language and its importance to China and poetry. After bouncing around several countries since he became persona non grata in his homeland, he settled in Davis, California. Now he is teaching Chinese language and poetry in Wisconsin.
Bei Dao, whose name means Northern Island, also helps run a quarterly literary magazine called "Today" modeled on a publication by the same name that he began in China in 1978, which was shut down 1980. In its North American incarnation, the magazine has been publishing for the last 10 years.
'I-DO-NOT-BELIEVE!'
His dissident status came with his earlier poetry. A line from his poem "The Answer" that cried "I-do-not-believe!" was taken up by student demonstrators in China's 1978 democracy movement who wrote the line on posters. Student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989 also drew inspiration from Bei Dao, making him an unwilling political player.
He was out of the country at the time of the Tiananmen massacre and has not been allowed back since.
"My feelings about it are complicated because I wasn't there. I wasn't at the square and students were facing death with my poetry. I even feel guilty that my poems tried to encourage students to die. They sacrificed themselves with my poetry," he said painfully.
He acknowledges that writing in Chinese is no easy task since the language has adopted Communist rhetoric.
"You have to be careful when writing in Chinese because the language today has been dominated by the 'official' language for a half century," he said.
"You have to be careful to pick that out. If you grow up with that language, in that environment, it is really hard to get rid of the imprints of that language."
Bei Dao even criticizes his own earlier work, particularly "The Answer," which was adopted by the democracy movement, as being drawn from official discourse.
"I'm tired of that poem, even if it is my most popular poem in China. To me, it is like an echo of the government's voice, of the official discourse, because the language is similar. Propaganda is always written in a raised voice, it's very high, and strong statements are used in its didacticism. My poem became like that," he said.
'CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME' WITH GOVERNMENT
"It was a cat-and-mouse game that we were both playing. ... My voice adopted social realism in that poem, it was like a revolutionary song. In my later works I avoided that, I tried to escape from under that shadow," he added.
He says a writer has to watch language even in non-Chinese poetry since it can be misused by becoming the object of poetry rather than the vehicle for ideas.
"International poetry is getting weak. People are just playing with words. It's a brain game. I try to avoid main themes and concentrate on sensations. I want to avoid rhetoric."
He has consistently published nonpolitical poems in recent years, including his latest collection, "Unlock," focusing more on the human experience than on politics. Being in exile has allowed him time for introspection and has also given him an insight into the North American mindset, he says.
"In general, I think people pretend they are happier here, but they are not happier. They try and avoid facing reality. I try to discover this unknown part of human life, the mysterious parts," he said.
Bei Dao's books have been translated into 25 languages and are published worldwide, although officially they are banned in China. Still, he has managed to publish some prose and poems in certain magazines in China.
His work has garnered international attention and he was even rumored to be in the running for the Nobel Prize several times, but it is an honor he says he does not covet.
"I don't think it is good for writers. You can imagine after a writer wins the Nobel Prize his public life will kill his writing," he said. "Writers are like silkworms, they have to work in the darkness. A hot light over time is very dangerous for a writer. I would rather remain in darkness." Reuters
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