New Perspectives on Contemporary Chinese Poetry

Fully ensconced in his environment, irrevocably built into its very

material, the lyrical quality of Yan’s visual figures, as the subjects of

his poems, are almost always at home, despite the forces that would

seem otherwise to alienate them. At the same time, reading such an

image, as reading many of the “poetry gum” series, brings resolutions

that are always somehow unsatisfactory. This is a hopeful gesture,

when the act of reading, itself a path to justice, to turning the tide, is

recuperative. The poem that opens this essay

Humanity can move itself deeply 有打的



Humanity can’t do any worse 

的

than humanity 制造

的具

Humanity is nothing but a tool  !"地

for making science $的%&'()^15

Humanity can’t but make some noise

As it walks on past humanity

is a similar case in point. The exchanges are an inevitable part of the

picture, and no rupture is found between the detriments of our tech-

nologies, our dependence, and the humanized or natural conditions they

defile or pollute. In terms of his paintings, perhaps none is better than

another tripartite series entitled “Escaping from the Cities” (2004):

156 Paul Manfredi

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