Women poets have taken advantage of the Internet to reach a larger
readership in establishing forums devoted exclusively to women’s
poetry. For example, WingsUforum and Women’s Poetry Paper
女?Ò are both unofficially published poetry journals that use their
forums to attract new poets and poetry.
Women poets are also very active in the developing move into
poetry blogging. Wu Ang, Yin Lichuan, Chunshu春树, Mo Xiaoxie
V}W, and An QiXYare among the more prominent of those who
began blogging in 2005. In fact, the most notable event on the avant-
garde poetry scene in China during 2005 was the great increase in the
use of Internet blogs by poets. While Internet forums are still heavily
used and increasing in number, a growing proportion of avant-garde
poets are turning to blogs to initially publish poetry and engage in
relatively private conversation with readers, as opposed to the ready
partisan support easily received on the forums with which they may be
associated.
This phenomenon may also be recognition on the part of some
poets that Internet forums—in particular those of the avant-garde—
can be intimidating places for “readers.” In this sense, this develop-
ment can be seen as positive and part of a “natural” maturation
process for Internet poets and poetry as they learn and adapt to their
Internet habitus. That said, the plethora of blogs in fact increases the
importance of a continued presence on forums, as poets post poems
with blog addresses in apparent attempts to attract readers to their
blogs. The more successful bloggers in this respect tend to be woman
poets, such as Wu Ang, Yin Lichuan, and Mo Xiaoxie, who post
personal essays and photography, allowing readers to get closer to the
poets and their poetry. The “stickiness” of their sites has apparently
reduced the need for them to appear on poetry forums. Male poets,
such as Sang Ke and Shen Haobo, tend to be less personal and include
critical essays along with poetry in their blogs. Correspondingly, they
tend to be far more active on avant-garde poetry forums than their
female colleagues.
Critics have spoken out against the seeming anarchy of poetry on
the Internet, among other things citing “nonpoetic” topics such as sex,
drug-use, and unseemly bodily functions. Coarse language and earthy
humor are also frequently present and criticized as unpoetic, as is
poetry on topical issues. In fact, similar criticisms were leveled against
elements of the avant-garde during the 1980s, but then the targets
were groups and individuals such as Sichuan’s Macho ManZ[and
Not-Not JJ, Zhou Lunyou周]^and Liao Yiwuä_`, and
Tianjin’s Yi Leiab. Other aspects are unique to or exacerbated by the
214 Michael Day