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Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets. Naikan Tao & Tony Prince, eds. Sydney, Australia. Wild Peony (University of Hawai'i Press, distr.). 2006. iv + 132 pages. $22. ISBN 1-876957-08-5
In the recent collection Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets, Naikan Tao and Tony Prince, both scholars of Chinese literature based in Australia, present a truly stunning array of recent work from some of the most well-known Chinese poets writing after the "Misty Poets" who gained worldwide popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Jiang He and Yang Lian (both Misty Poets themselves) helped develop so-called elitist poetry as a response to the subjective reflection on social realities explored by their fellow poets. Jiang He's and Yang Lian's work turned away from a preoccupation with subjectivity and toward more mythical and historical narratives of self and nation. Han Dong and Yu Jian helped initiate a movement dubbed "neorealist" by turning away from the heroic landscape of the "elitist" poetry and turned instead toward the particulars of...