18 chapter one
ҷ), often actively propagated or “stir-fried” (♦) by their propo-
nents to ensure coverage in criticism and literary histories.^25 Be that as
it may, two important, generalizable points about the 1980s are that
the avant-garde exploded into pluriformity and abundance, and that
the first signs of the opposition of the Elevated and the Earthly as one
of its distinguishing features became apparent.
The first point is illustrated by Xu Jingya’s spectacular “Grand Ex-
hibition of Modern Poetry Groups on China’s Poetry Scene, 1986”
(Ё䆫യ1986’ ⦄ҷ䆫㕸ԧሩ), followed up in 1988 by a fat survey
anthology entitled Overview of Chinese Modernist Poetry Groups 1986-1988
(Ё⦄ҷЏН䆫㕸㾖1986-1988), from among a wealth of other
evidence. For the second point, witness the late 1980s self-proclamation
of (Elevated) Intellectual Writing and, in Yeh’s words, the emergence of
a “cult of poetry” on the one hand—tragic-heroic like Obscure Poetry
but semi-religious rather than semi-political—in mutual antagonism
with an (Earthly) anti-cult of colloquializing and vulgarizing trends on
the other. To both sides, poet-hood was as important as, if not more
important than, poetry. Beyond Obscure Poetry, the opposition of the
Elevated and the Earthly was also visible in a broad association of the
notion of a Third Generation with the Earthly side of things, and of
the notion of Post-Obscure Poetry with the Elevated.^26
Then came June Fourth. Its most immediate consequence was an
added sense of identity and urgency for an exile poetry scene that had
gradually formed in the late 1980s. This abruptly gained in visibility
as authors who found themselves outside China, such as Yang Lian,
Bei Dao and Duoduo, were given huge international media exposure,
occasioned by widely felt outrage over the PRC government’s violence
against its citizens. The significance of poetry by authors exiled from
the PRC is the reason why this chapter’s title speaks of avant-garde
poetry from China, encompassing poetry written within the nation’s
(^25) See Gong & Nie 2000, An et al 2004, Huang Lihai 2001 and the unofficial
journal Selected Post-80 Poetry (80ৢ䆫䗝, since 2002).
(^26) On the Third Generation and kindred categories, often contrasted with Ob-
scure Poetry, see Tang Xiaodu 1992: volume editor’s preface, Chen Zhongyi 1993
and 1994: 45-58, Chen Xuguang 1996, Zhang Qinghua 1997: 147-158, Wang
Yichuan 1998: ch 3, Yang Xiaobin 1999: ch 3, Li Zhen 2001a, Luo Zhenya 2002:
ch 5-6 and 2005, Wang Guangming 2003: ch 11, Day 2005a: ch 1 and ch 4 and Zhu
Dake 2006: ch 6; on the “Grand Exhibition” and related material, Xu Jingya 1986
and Xu Jingya et al 1988 (and on the relation of the latter two documents, Day
2005b); on the cult of poetry, Yeh 1996a.