Chinese Literature - Li-hua Ying 2010

ZHANG ER, PEN NAME OF LI MINGXIA (1961— )
The Dictionary

ZHANG ER, PEN NAME OF LI MINGXIA (1961— ). Poet. Born in Beijing, Zhang Er came to the United States in 1986 and received her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Cornell University. She is currently teaching at Evergreen State College in Washington State. She has published several collections of poetry including a bilingual edition, Guanyu niao de duan shi / Verses on Bird. For many years, Zhang lived in New York City, where she was actively involved in the poetry communities, giving public readings of her poems and participating and editing overseas Chinese poetry journals, such as Yi hang (One Line) and Shi xiang (The Poetic Phenomenon). She has published a series of vignettes of New York poets, introducing contemporary poets in the New York area to Chinese readers. Although written in her native language, Zhang’s poems reflect her multicultural background, addressing issues such as language and self-identity. She has also translated and edited collections of modern Chinese poetry.