Notes
- A book-length translation of Xia’s work was published under the Wade-
Giles spelling Hsia Yü. See Bradbury 2001. - Tang Xiaodu adds a third alternative to this list, that of a “masculine per-
sona,” but that would not have been a choice open to women until
recently, because of social factors. See Tang 1994. - Some other “stream of consciousness” poets are Lu Yimin陆(b.
1962), Zhang Zhen(b. 1961), Yi Lei (b. 1951), Tang Yaping
唐(b. 1962), and Wang Xiaoni #(b. 1955), all of whom are
women; along with the male poets, Liu Manliu刘 B(b. 1962), Meng
Lang (b. 1961), Bei Ling (b. 1959), and Xi Chuan !"(b.
1963). - Although many of Zhai Yongming’s poems exist in multiple versions, those
cited here are drawn from her 1994 Collected Works. - Over the past two decades, Zhai Yongming has engaged in an ongoing
project of defining the world and her place in it, along with a constantly
revisited and revised exploration of what constitutes “women’s writing.”
For her part, Xia Yu has continued to take her writing in an experimental
direction, including, at the time of this writing, experiments with machine
retranslation. - Xia Yu’s dismay at others’ appropriation of her work bears comparison
with Zhai Yongming’s reaction to the intense response to her 1984 poem
cycle, “Woman”. - Tang Yaping, Zhai Yongming’s fellow “Stream of Consciousness” poet, is
one of the women poets whose work reflects Zhai’s powerful influence.
Tang’s poem sequence, “The Black Desert” Hei shamo#$, is a good
example. See Day 2007b. - I have discussed elsewhere the way in which a contemporary poet such as
Xiong Hong in Taiwan confronts her own anger, sense of injury, and indig-
nation, only to back down from these intense emotions to take comfort in
a deeply religious (Buddhist) but also, not coincidentally, traditionally
female form of self-denial and self-abnegation. The reader senses her anger
but watches as she sinks into melancholy because of her inability to
acknowledge that anger. Instead, she turns it in on herself. - This aquatic imagery may also bring to mind Xia Yu’s poem,
“Ventriloquy.”
120 Andrea Lingenfelter