Literary Birthday – 2 August – Bei Dao
Happy Birthday, Bei Dao, born on 2 August 1949.
Bei Dao Quotes
- On the one hand, poetry is useless. It can’t change the world materially. On the other hand, it is a basic part of human existence. It came into the world when humans did. It’s what makes human beings human.
- Writing is the thing that sustains me and keeps me going. It is a form of self-preservation.
- I don’t think of writing my poems for China or for the world. I mainly think of a small audience of friends and people I know. I am writing for that small group. They are not necessarily going to be able to read it, but that’s what I have in mind when I write.
- Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted.
- As a writer, the most important thing for me is to continue to write, no matter where I am.
Bei Dao is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai. He is one of the most famous Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. In addition to poetry, he is the author of short fiction, essays, and a memoir. Honours bestowed for his body of work include the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award; an American Academy of Arts and Letters, Honorary Member award; and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts. His work includes Sidetracks and The Rose of Time: New and Selected Poems. Dao now resides in Hong Kong, where he is an Honorary Professor of Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Source for photograph: Avjoska, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
by Amanda Patterson
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