154 chapter four
Bei Dao’s publishing record is similar to Yang’s, although his work
has been censored more harshly inside China. Early in 2003, follow-
ing journal publication of some of his short prose, survey anthologies
of Bei Dao’s poetry by the South Sea Press and the Hundred Flowers
in Literature & Art Press marked the end of a fourteen-year domestic
publication ban, albeit with several instances of (self-)censorship. The
opportunity was not lost on scholars and critics, who began publish-
ing the commentaries on his poetry that had been out of bounds since
June Fourth. The presentation of Bei Dao’s two new books, published
in Haikou and Changchun, was extremely cautious. Aside from the ac-
tual poetry, in the glaring absence of prefatory essays by one respected
critic or another that would have accompanied the work of this one of
China’s greatest poets under different circumstances, all they contain
is minimalist blurbs on the inside cover noting the author’s residence
abroad and his earlier book publications. In the meantime an impres-
sive series of journal publications and books of Bei Dao’s poetry had
appeared with major publishers outside China, both in Chinese, in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, and in other countries and languages. Like
Yang Lian’s foreign publications, some of these books are bilingual.
In fact, while Bei Dao had published an unofficial collection as early
as 1978, his first official book had also been a bilingual edition, edited
and translated by Bonnie McDougall and published in the USA in
1983.^32
Wang Jiaxin’s (official) publication record inside China shows a
relatively quiet spell in 1992-1993, when he was living abroad, but his
work was not banned, nor has it ever counted as particularly “sensi-
tive” in comparison to other avant-garde poetry. In the fall of 1993,
the Southern Poetry Review (फᮍ䆫ᖫ), an unofficial journal out of Shang-
hai, carried a special feature on his work; so did the official, scholarly
journal Poetry Exploration in 1994, after Wang had returned. Outside
China, in addition to foreign-language publications in journals and
multiple-author anthologies, the Wellsweep Press brought out a bi-
lingual computer disk containing a selection of Wang’s poetry with
English translations by John Cayley, and sound recordings of Wang’s
recitation of the Chinese texts.^33
(^32) Bei Dao 2003a and 2003b. Yiping 2003, Bei Dao & Tang 2003, Yang Lihua
2003, Zhang Hong 2003: 63-106, Yang Siping 2004: ch 13. Bei Dao 1978 and
1983.
(^33) Wang Jiaxin 1993.