exile 153returning to China early in 1994. Also, ⌕ѵ ‘exile’ frequently occurs
in the poetry he wrote during his time abroad and in earlier poems
such as his 1990 homage to Pasternak. The pseudo-exile charge, how-
ever, is part of larger diatribes by Shen, Yi Sha and company delivered
during the 1998-2000 Popular-Intellectual Polemic, with Wang as the
favorite Intellectual target of Popular hellraisers.^30
ii. Place of PublicationGlad’s second question is whether the writer publishes in the home
country, legally or clandestinely, or with foreign publishers. As noted,
two of Yang Lian’s books were banned or had their circulation imped-
ed in China in 1989; the new Today, to which he has contributed from
the start, was clandestine when taken into China, especially in the ear-
ly years; also, as pointed out by Jacob Edmond, Yang has continued
to publish in the domestic, unofficial circuit, which is not clandestine
but stands in fluctuating opposition to the official publishing world and
censorship. In 1991, however, an official, joint production of Yang’s
long poem Yi ( ) and a commentary by Yufeng was published by the
Hunan Literature & Art Press in Changsha, and in 1998 and 2003 the
Shanghai Literature & Art Press put out surveys of his oeuvre to date.
Edmond sees the 1998 publication as signaling Yang’s “reengagement
with the official Chinese literary market” after June Fourth. In China,
“provincial” (ⳕ) publishers and other cultural institutions are less
susceptible to political strictures than those in Beijing. Edmond argues
that also in the capital, increased acceptability of Yang’s work in the
PRC had already been visible in a 1994 collection of essays by him
and Yo Yo, published by the Central Editions & Translations Press.
Another Chinese-language collection by Yang appeared in the same
year with the Taiwan Modern Poetry Press in Taipei, but for present
purposes this counts as a publication abroad. Over the years, in several
countries and languages outside China, Yang has built up a long list
of journal and book publications of his poetry in translation, some also
containing the Chinese originals.^31
(^30) Shen Haobo 1998, Yi 1999b, Xu Jiang 1999b, Song Xiaoxian 1999, Tang Xin
2000, Yemen 2001: 305. Yemen appears to be a pseudonym of Yi Sha. Wang Jiaxin
1994: 99 and 1997: 2-5, 64-66. 31
Edmond 2006: 111, 113 et passim; Yang Lian 1991, 1998a, 1998b, 2003; Yang
Lian & Yo Yo 1994, Yang Lian 1994a.