Description: A selection from the lifework of the internationally renowned poet Bei Dao, who is "like reading Chekhov or Turgenev reflected in a porcelain bowl" (The Times [London]).
Brief description: Bei Dao, (the pen name of Zhao Zhenkai) was born in Beijing in 1949. During the Cultural Revolution, he worked as a concrete mixer and blacksmith for eleven years. Forced into exile after the Tiananmen Massacre, he lived in Europe and the US until 2007, then settling in Hong Kong until, only recently, moving back to Beijing. He has been hailed as "the soul of post-Mao poetry" (Yunte Huang) and praised for his "intense lyricism" (Pankaj Mishra). Bei Dao has received numerous awards for his poetry all over the world, and founded the International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong. His photography and paintings have been exhibited in China, Hong Kong, and Japan. New Directions publishes ten of his books.
Review Quotes: His poems are intense, elegant and impressionistic.--Dwight Garner "The New York Times Arts Beat"