China in 1985. Yan’s departure at the high point of drawing the
literary lines of scrimmage meant that he kept his position as one of
the founding members of China’s contemporary literary scene more
intact. As the field of contemporary poetry becomes increasingly
fractious, the foundation on which all subsequent variations grew
becomes the Obscure poets themselves. Yan Li, in particular, for hav-
ing missed first-hand experience of the intervening decades in China
(1985–2000), becomes a dependable spokesperson for the group, a
fact exemplified by Yan’s June, 2004, appearance on the Shanghai
television showIn People78物. In the interview, Yan is called
upon to give his first-hand account of the activities of Bei Dao, Mang
Ke, and other major figures of the Obscure poetry movement, a period
that, with the benefit of a quarter century’s hindsight, takes on a dis-
tinctly romanticized quality. The sense of the program is that though
those artists were deprived of basic necessities such as ink and copy
machines, their idealistic spirits are enviable from the perspective of an
affluent and spiritually bankrupt present.
Also related in the In Peopleprogram is the fact that Yan’s poetic
work emerged roughly at the same time as his activities as one of the
founding members of the Stars Art Group::;<.^10 In September
1979, this group held its first public exhibition, hanging their work on
an iron fence in a Beijing park across from National Art Gallery. The
following year, Yan and others were able to hold another exhibition,
this time inside the National Art Gallery itself, an occasion that
brought 80,000 visitors to the door and was quickly shut down by
authorities (Wu 2000: 12). In the following years, Yan continued, as
much as possible, to exhibit his art work, an effort that culminated in
a one-man show—the first ever of an avant-garde artist in China—in
Shanghai in 1984 (Yan 2004: 65).
Once in New York City, Yan’s work in poetry and painting contin-
ued apace. His appearances at The Poetry Project (St. Mark’s Church),
the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (with Allen Ginsberg), and at Columbia
University in the mid–late 1980s attested to his successful integration
in the local poetry establishment, while his one-man shows at the Feng
Gallery (1985), Vassar College (1986), Art Waves (1987) suggest the
same for his painting career. At the same time, Yan was developing his
own literary magazine, Yihang =, whereby he was providing a
venue for poets otherwise unable to publish in China. As Yihanggrew
into an online journal (2001), it has served, among other things, to cut
across many of the boundaries, real and perceived, that separated the
various camps of artists and writers in China. Yan’s contribution
through this journal, which is often remarked upon by writers in148 Paul Manfredi9781403976079ts10.qxp:Layout 1 11/9/07 11:10 AM Page 148