Chapter Three
Zheng Chouyu and the Search
for Voice in Contemporary
Chinese Lyric Poetry
Christopher Lupke
Despite the paucity of scholarship on him in English, Zheng Chouyu
愁(b. 1933; penname of Zheng Wentao 文) is a poet of con-
siderable renown in Chinese-speaking communities. In Taiwan, for
example, Zheng’s broad popularity is second to none. His was ranked
first by far in a poll of “classic” contemporary poetic works conducted
by the United Daily News合報in the late 1990s (Chen Yizhi 1999:
507). Considering that many of his best-known poems were written
forty to fifty years ago, this survey exhibits impressive longevity. The
poet and critic Jiao Tong 焦桐adds that the well-known selection of
Zheng’s poems Zheng Chouyu Shiji愁 “is the most perva-
sive, best selling, and by far most influential collection of modern
poetry in Taiwan” (Jiao 1999: 286). Originally published by Hongfan
in 1979, the book has seen over sixty reprints. Another selection,
several individual poetry collections, and a second volume to the
Hongfan publication compete with each other, but all sell well. His
verse is anthologized in textbooks, and musicians such as Li Taixiang
祥have set it to music. In mainland China, Zheng enjoys some
popular appeal as well and is known by most educated people. The
scholarship in Taiwan on Zheng is voluminous. Mainland scholarship
is considerably less, as one would imagine, but serious attention there
has nonetheless been devoted to his work.
What is the source of this magnetism? While the average reader
may not be conscious of this fact in the historical development of mod-
ern Chinese verse, Zheng Chouyu occupies a pivotal position as some-
one who is traditional and conservative and yet at the same time
radical and innovative. The poet-scholar Yang Mu 牧(C.H. Wang),
arguing that Zheng is “the most Chinese of Chinese poets,” identifies
Zheng’s ability to forge a poetic style that is both modern (a term