Yang Lian; Yi
Translated from the Chinese by Mabel Lee
A Bilingual Edition
Series No.: 035
ISBN: 1-892295-68-7, Pages: 361
Yang Lian stands with Bei Dao and others as one of the major living Chinese exiled poets. Indeed, he and Bei Dao both belonged to the group described as the "Misty" poets in China. Yang's work has been nominated previously for the Nobel Prize and other major awards. In this important new work, Yang takes the Book of Changes as the inner structure, which he rearranges and pulls apart to emphasize the significance of this ancient classical Chinese system for symbolizing nature. Believing that the several centuries of interpretations have divorced it from its original intent, Yang Lian attempts in this work to represent man as the subject of nature.
Born in Bern, Switzerland in 1955, where he lived while his parents were posted by the Chinese Embassy there, Yang Lian grew up in Beijing. He began writing when he was sent to the countryside in the 1970s, and upon his return to Beijing he cofounded the influential literary magazine Jintian (Today). His work was banned in China in 1983, and he lived in exile as a citizen of New Zealand. After periods of time in Australia, Germany, and the United States, he has settled in London.
Mabel Lee is the noted translator of the Nobel prize-winning author Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain. She lives in Australia.