324 chapter nine
cation, the horrors of marriage and pedestrian middle-class existence,
the new rich, emotionally indifferent sex, thugs, whores, street gang
violence and so on. Shen’s poems are occasionally funny and usual-
ly aggressive, and contain many colloquialisms, not idiosyncratic or
experimental but delivered with considerable panache. The lines are
either very short or very long; let’s first consider an example of the
former. «Huang Si’s Ideals» (咘ಯⱘ⧚ᛇ, 2001) makes one or two
references to Chinese realities, but in such a way that a modicum of
historical knowledge on the part of the reader will suffice:^25
«Huang Si’s Ideals»
huang si and i
sit on his balcony
drinking beer
playing dice
huang si is always
lucky at dice
just like he’s been
lucky in business for years
he blows into his hands
and says
if i throw a six
i’ll realize
my first ideal
before the year’s out
buy a cadillac
and drive across the square
of heavenly peace
he blows again
and if then
i throw another six
i’ll also realize
my second ideal
then i’ll pay a million
or two million
to book our high school teacher
that woman(^25) Shen Haobo 2001a: 59-60.