104 chapter three
Amplified by reverberations of “1989” ever since the massacre, the im-
pact of Haizi’s suicide also shows in instances of commemoration and
identification, both institutionalized and individual. Remembrance of
Haizi at PKU has been institutionalized since the early 1990s by fixing
the date of the May Fourth Literary Society’s annual poetry readings
on or around 26 March, the anniversary of his death. When in the
1994 edition, the MC began to read Haizi’s poetry on stage, large
parts of the audience joined in, hundreds of people shouting out the
lines of poems they obviously knew by heart. The Chinese have a for-
midable tradition of memorizing poetry but this was a stunning scene
nonetheless, with Haizi’s poetry recited in an atmosphere like that of
collective prayer or the singing of an anthem. In 1999 the University’s
Theater Society (࣫Ҁᄺ៣࠻力 or ࣫࠻力) staged «Regicide»
(ᓥ), an acclaimed part of Haizi’s «The Sun». In 2001 a group of stu-
dents traveled to where Haizi killed himself and collectively lay down
on the railroad tracks in imitation of his suicide. Incidentally, while
Haizi himself hadn’t lain down but had thrown himself in from the
side, most references to his death use the expression ऻ䔼㞾ᴔ ‘lie
down on the tracks to kill oneself.’ His alma mater aside, ever since the
appearance of The Poetry of Haizi and The Complete Poems, public com-
memorative activities—mostly poetry recitals, but also theatrical ac-
tivities such as that described above—have been taking place all over
China.^17
As for individual instances of commemoration and identification,
Xu Yi, editor of the works of poet Fang Xiang who took poison to end
his life at age twenty-seven in 1990, notes in a chronicle of Fang’s life
that in 1989, he “was influenced by the posthumous manuscripts of
Haizi.” Fang Xiang may well be the anonymous poet referred to by
Xi Chuan when he relates how a young man from Zhejiang province
traveled to Haizi’s Anhui home to perform memorial rites in his honor
before taking his own life.^18 In light of the poetry cult and the series of
high-profile suicides and other deaths in poetry that began with Haizi,
stories such as this shouldn’t be dismissed as mere legend. And even
if they were just that, they would still reaffirm cultish features of the
Chinese poetry scene.
(^17) I witnessed the recital. The staging of «Regicide» is cited in Liaoyuan 2001: 8.
On commemorative activities, see Gao Bo 2003: 131-132.
(^18) Fang 1997: 157. See also Mao Jian 2005: 160-166. Xi Chuan 1994a: 97.