Chinese Literature - Li-hua Ying 2010

WANG JIAXIN (1957— )
The Dictionary

WANG JIAXIN (1957— ). Poet. Born in Hubei, Wang Jiaxin graduated from the Chinese Department of Wuhan University. From 1985 to 1990, he edited Shi kan (Poetry), the main poetry journal in China. After spending two years in England in the early 1990s, Wang returned to China to teach literary theory and comparative literature at Beijing Educational College. A representative of the so-called academic poets mostly based in Beijing, Wang has been writing poetry since the 1980s, when the influence of Misty poetry was at its height. For this reason, he is considered, by some literary critics, one of the Misty poets. However, Wang’s reputation as a poet was not widely recognized until his sojourn in and return from Europe. One of the recurring subjects in his poetry written during this period is the émigré experience. In a series of poems paying homage to, or in dialogue with, poets such as Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, Joseph Brodsky, Boris Pasternak, Czeslaw Milosz, and others, Wang identifies with them in feelings of alienation and rootlessnesss. Chinese poets who have influenced his work include Feng Zhi, also a scholar-poet of an older generation. See also GENERATION III POETS.