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The Browsing Room of the Knight Library was packed Monday for the reading from Bei Dao, one of China's most treasured writers in the 1970s. In 1976, Bei Dao's poetry was instrumental in the formation of the April 5 Democracy Movement and later, the Tiananmen Square demonstration. Bei Dao was also the poet that started a particular style of poetry called "menglong shi" or "misty poetry."
"I first met Bei Dao in Denmark, at the University of Aarhus," said Wendy Larson, the Associate Dean of Humanities and a Professor of East Asian Languages and Literature. "At the time, I was a Fulbright and he was teaching. Funnily enough, both of us didn't know how to speak the language in Denmark, so we clicked as friends immediately."
"The two things that makes Bei Dao so successful is the fact that in the 1970s, his poetry broke apart the socialist model. Secondly, it is also because he has been so active, always keeping up to his writing, that he has done so much to introduce Chinese writing to the world," she said.
Bei Dao, whose real name is Zhao Zenkai, read from his published works in the Chinese language. After each Chinese reading, Garrett Hongo, a Creative Writing Professor, read the English translated version. The audience was mesmerized by Bei Dao's words as they echoed through the room.
"I just think that we are very fortunate to have him here with us tonight and hearing his poetry translated in English. Garrett did a good job," said Lori O'Hollaren, the Assistant Director for the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.
"I think the motivation for writing is always mysterious," Bei Dao said. "I can't really say what exactly got me writing but probably the many conditions that were happening in China at the time. So with the political and personal that was happening, it all reached a climax that was my writing.
"During that time, political pressure was very hard. Everything, including writing, was banned. When I started writing, my father was very worried about my writing. When I first showed my earlier works to him, he was scared and asked me to burn it. I did burn it, but I kept another copy. Most parents were very scared at that time," he said.
Because of his outspoken writing, Bei Dao was exiled from his homeland China for many years. Since then he has traveled to many different countries, teaching and introducing Chinese literature to the Western World.
"I had taken part in a conference on Chinese culture in San Francisco in the spring of 1989," he said. "That was a month before the Tiananmen Square incident. But when it took place, I was not allowed to return to China. I was separated from my wife and daughter for six years. So for six years we kept constant contact through phone and writing."
This reading event was organized by the Mountain Writers Series, an organization that is sponsoring Bei Dao as he travels around America, giving readings of his poems. They had contacted the head of Asian studies at the University of Oregon, Maram Epstein, last spring.
"When I heard the name Bei Dao, I was all over it. I mean, this man is an important cultural figure. He alone represents something to someone," Epstein said. "He represents the ideal of poet statesmen, for his poetry established a whole new school of poetry ... that becomes the voice of descent and is filled with modern images.
"I am hoping that people who attended this reading will take away the responsibility of artists who speak for themselves. And for all of us scholars, it is not just about scholarships and being in the same room as Bei Dao. But rather it is understanding the political power of literature. I hope that people will be inspired and speak their conscience," she said. Professor Larson said she hoped people who attended Bei Dao's Tuesday lecture, "Underground Literature in Late 60s China," would reach a greater understanding of his poetry.
"I hope that people can contextualize the history through his poems, for it is not easy for people to understand."
Rachel Lee is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald
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