exile 143of them analogous to those surrounding categories such as women’s
literature, as David Bevan remarks. Do writers in exile automatically
produce exile literature? Can one write exile literature inside one’s
native land? How do audiences fit into definitions of exile literature?
What about literary content and form?
Paul Tabori points out that the question is who does the defining.
This point holds for exile and exile literature alike, all the more so since
conceptualizations of exile have grown in scope and currency over
the past several decades. In this light, we should work less than ever
toward closure or generalization, and instead reflect on definitional
choices and their potential for inclusiveness; and emphasize the pos-
sibility of reading for exile rather than essentializing texts or authors.^4
My argument starts from the observation that Yang Lian, Wang Jia-
xin and Bei Dao have been called poets in exile or explicitly associated
with the status of exile, by others and by themselves. This has mostly
happened in popular and scholarly texts published outside China. If
the term rarely occurs inside China, this is at least partly because it has
at times been “sensitive” or politically incorrect by orthodox standards
and must often fall victim to (self-)censorship, except when used sar-
castically.^5 Below, in section 1, I take a closer look at Yang’s, Wang’s
and Bei Dao’s exile designations, using a theoretical framework pro-
posed by John Glad. In section 2 I read for exile in their poetry. Exile
and diaspora have obvious interfaces, but my analysis doesn’t aspire
to contribute to diaspora studies of Chinese literature or Chineseness
as constituting ethnic or cultural identity. Following William Safran
and Tom Cheesman and Marie Gillespie, I take diaspora as having
(^4) Edwards 1988: 18, Said 2001: 173, Bevan 1990: 3, Tabori 1972: 35-36, Hanne
2004: 1-6.
(^5) The term ⌕ѵ ‘exile’ doesn’t appear in Keywords in Contemporary Chinese Literature
(Ёᔧҷ᭛ᄺ݇䬂䆡), a book whose editors are known for their receptiveness to
new trends (Hong & Meng 2002). It is also conspicuous by its absence in Zhao Xun
2002 (on Wang Jiaxin) and Yang Siping 2004: 238-249 (on Bei Dao, with the chap-
ter heading referring to his post-1989 career asএ ‘leaving the motherland’). Per-
sonal communication by several poets and critics working in PRC poetry scenes and
comments in Zhao (Henry) 1997a: 116 (or 1997b: 133) and Bei Dao & Tang 2003:
164 also point to the “sensitivity” of ⌕ѵ ‘exile,’ and its vulnerability to censorship.
These things fluctuate: Yiping 2003, Zhang Hong 2003: 98-103 and Tang Xiaodu
2006 do speak of ⌕ѵ ‘exile.’ Of course, ⌕ѵ ‘exile’ is also in competition with
other terms like ⍋ ‘overseas’ and ⌕ᬷ ‘diaspora,’ as in the 2003 Overseas Diaspora
Literature Series (⍋⌕ᬷ᭛ᄺϯк) edited by Henry Zhao for the Hundred Flowers
Literature & Art Press.