Chinese Literature - Li-hua Ying 2010

ZANG DI (1964— )
The Dictionary

ZANG DI (1964— ). Poet. Born and raised in Beijing, Zang Di received his B.A. and Ph.D. in Chinese from Beijing University and is currently teaching literature at his alma mater. Zang began writing poetry in his freshman year. His first poem, “Weiming hu” (The Weiming Lake), appeared in 1983 in a Beijing University journal and since then he has published more than 20 poems in the same journal. His poems are characterized by their slow, deliberate pace made possible through images gleaned from daily life, which are then stretched and multiplied in a flowing, prosaic, linguistic play. This particular emphasis on style suggests that poetry as a form of art is capable of opening up a multitude of angles from which the world can be experienced; the task for a poet is not merely to express his or her emotions but to explore all possible ways in which poetry interacts with the world through imagination. In this respect, Zang is a truly modern poet in the footsteps of poets such as John Ashbery, whose poetry shows the potential of the human mind. Zang’s poetry is sophisticated and philosophical. Winner of the Poetry Prize awarded by Zuojia (Writers) in 2000, among other honors, Zang is a prolific poet, having published several collections of poetry and prose. He also edited a Chinese translation of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and several collections of contemporary Chinese poetry.