conventions xvsions that would establish some sort of historical linkage to the poems
discussed or build an orderly line-up in which, for instance, Bei Dao
should always be older than Yang Lian. Hence, in chapter Four the
reader will encounter a Bei Dao who is younger than Yang Lian; and
in chapter Two, a Han Dong who wrote the poetry under scrutiny
some fifteen or twenty years ago; and so on.
Information that is not common knowledge and for which no source
is given comes from fieldwork notes covering the years since 1991,
when I started building what has since become an archive of avant-
garde poetry from China.
Reliable access to the online resources consulted for this study is
ensured through a dedicated citation repository of the relevant web-
site and web page downloads in the Leiden University division of the
Digital Archive for Chinese Studies (DACHS Leiden, see p475).
On the whole, as regards these conventions and the design of the
table of contents, the introductory chapter One, the index and so on,
I have tried to write not just for those who will read this book from
cover to cover, but also for those especially interested in this or that
chapter or piece of information, and to be sensible rather than rigidly
systematic.