The poem, an unbroken but clearly identifiable two-segment sequence,
opens with the playfully audacious maneuver of anthropomorphiz-
ing the well-known soft drink. As a potential spouse, Coke ranks
well in notoriety but raises questions in terms of genetic coding in
offspring. The turning point, following his friends’ advice, rests on
“Thereupon,” at which pivot the poem locks into an emphatic list of
“until,” tightening the space between-iang-ending lines that, with
the exception of the penultimate line, anchor the poem’s meter. Yan
thus ratchets up the intensity wherein the anthropomorphized Coke
is drawn ever closer into self-identification, “brewing” and “ageing”
until the subject becomes “I” thoroughly cured of any ideal. This
arguably horrific baptism by Coke is delivered in unsentimental
terms, but also, curiously, without explicit irony. In the global city,
the logic of consumption replaces the logic of dissent. It is a logic of
exchange, one that cuts through ideals with an unfeeling pragmatism
that is lamented and celebrated in equal parts. The preoccupation
with the manner and the underlying principal of the “flows” of
market forces—or capital, which is so literally a dynamic of a
transnational entity such as Coca-Cola through global cities of
today—is where Yan’s consistency of style is most striking.
Returning again to one of Yan’s earliest works, for instance, we find
“Mushroom” (蘑ù):Who can ú
convince themselves û
That in the darkest places 在阴暗的处境
Life disappears V 在s
Even with its back to the light 着光
Rotten wood is impregnated 木怀
(Yan 2004: 5)Moving across the decades to another 2002 poem, “Patent on
Fortune” 的 利:Humanity is very fortunate!
！
The sun is so perfectly far ¥阳地球
from the earth 阴道阳具的天地Á合
Coordinated like land and sky, é
vagina and penis 在吸扁s地球的
Humanity can’t help but be 如+着技的酥
fortunate 电u !B化s千®的ÄÇ$%
After sucking flat the breast &肉()
of the earth *Ñ内老+,-的.158 Paul Manfredi9781403976079ts10.qxp:Layout 1 11/9/07 11:10 AM Page 158