avant-garde poetry from china 13- Context: Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money
Let’s return for a moment to the notions of text, context and metatext.
First of all, text → context → metatext is the order in which, by and
large, my interest in poetry has developed over the years, but not one
to which I necessarily adhere for the presentation of my material. In
this chapter, for instance, it seems practical to have the present sec-
tion, on context, precede the sections on text and metatext; and in this
study at large, to have the present chapter with its extensive treatment
of context and metatext precede the first of several textually oriented
case studies. Second, text + context + metatext is a pragmatic, flexible
trinity, not a trichotomy. I have no desire to cut these things off from
one another, for in a project such as this they inter-act more often than
not, with boundaries that are positively fuzzy and occasionally decep-
tive, for instance in the case of Xi Chuan’s explicit poetics. There is
much text that is also context and metatext, context and metatext of-
ten overlap, and so on. Text, context and metatext are real categories
and anything but arbitrary or interchangeable, but their mobilization
depends on one’s perspective.
Subtitling this section times of mind, mayhem and money is an attempt
to sum up vast changes in the social, political and cultural context of
contemporary poetry from the late 1970s until the present, often sim-
plified as a contrast between “the Eighties” (ܿकᑈҷǃ 80 ᑈҷ) and
“the Nineties” (бकᑈҷǃ 90 ᑈҷ) and beyond that applies in the
intellectual-cultural realm at large. It is in this particular usage that I
occasionally write Eighties or Nineties—mostly in the phrase Poetry of the
Nineties (бकᑈҷ䆫℠ǃ 90 ᑈҷ䆫℠), which we will encounter sev-
eral times—as distinct from 1980s and 1990s, the latter being neutral
indications of calendar time.
Mind refers to the upbeat atmosphere during the Reform era until
the summer of 1989. In these years the subordination of literature and
art to politics gradually came to an end. There was a great deal of ex-
hilaration in the life of the mind, that expressed itself in a high culture
craze or high culture fever (᭛࣪⛁), in Wang Jing’s words.^17 Poetry
was positively hot. This was apparent in frenzied, extraverted activity,
much of it practiced in joint initiatives linked to journals, multiple-
author anthologies, societies, slogans, Isms and events.
(^17) Wang Jing 1996.