In China, every phase of modernization had its particular poetic forms and lyrical articulations. The 1919 May Fourth movement was the breeding ground for poetical experiments by authors inspired by new world literary trends. Under Mao Zedong, folk songs accompanied political campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward. Misty Poetry of the 1980s contributed to the humanistic discourse of the post-Mao reform era. The most recent stage in Chinese poetry resonates with entangled local and global concerns, such as technological innovation, environmental anxieties, socio-political transformations, and the return of nationalist sentiments and Cold War divisions. In search for creative responses to the crisis, poets frequently revisit the past while holding on to their poetic language of self-reflection and social critique. This volume identifies three foci in contemporary poetry discourses: formal crossovers, multiple realities, and liquid boundaries. These three themes are anything but mutually disjunctive and often intersect within texts from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan discussed in the book.

Table of Contents:
Introduction – Justyna Jaguscik, Joanna Krenz, and Andrea Riemenschnitter – Treading a Tightrope: Chinese Poetry in the Modern World I Multiple Realities Chapter 1. Nick Admussen – The Death of Transnational Time: Locality, Reader Response, and the Strange Loop Chapter 2. Liansu Meng – Redefining Family Women: The Ecofeminist Poetics of Shu Ting and Wang Xiaoni Chapter 3. Andrea Lingenfelter – “Green mountains, green history, who will bear witness?” A Woman’s Montage: Zhai Yongming’s Following Huang Gongwang through the Fuchun Mountains Chapter 4. Andrea Riemenschnitter – Deep Lyricism: Yu Jian’s “On the Ancient Road of Hubei’s Xishui County: A Detour” Chapter 5. Joanna Krenz – From a Poetry Popsicle to a Polymathic Herstorian: Xiao Bing’s “Possible Worlds” Through the Lens of Critical Code Studies II Formal Crossovers Chapter 6. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik – Lu Xun and Kuriyagawa Hakuson: Reading “Dead Fire” and “After Death” Chapter 7. Victor Vuilleumier – Ma Junwu’s Reinvented Lyricism: Revolutionary Landscape, Romanticism, Science Fiction, and Darwinian Geology Chapter 8. Zhiyi Yang - To “World Poetry” and Back: Xutang’s Classicist Lyricism and the Ethnic Digital Bookshelf Chapter 9. Michelle Yeh – Nativism Revisited: Paradoxes in Modern Poetry in Taiwan Chapter 10. Dean Anthony Brink – Processing Strangers as Vital Jouissance in Hsia Yü’s First Person III Liquid Boundaries Chapter 11. Simona Gallo – “I Sing of Flesh”: The Rhythm of Mu Dan’s Self-translation Chapter 12. Mary Shuk Han Wong – Dark Tourism: Leung Ping-kwan’s Eastern European Journeys in 1990 and 1991 Chapter 13. Chris Song – Hong Kong’s Leftist Poetry: Sinophone and/or Huawen? Chapter 14. Maghiel van Crevel – Poetry and Subalternity: What Are We Looking for? Chapter 15. Justyna Jaguscik – Wu Xia’s Poetics of Affect Bibliography Index