Flash Cards is a primer of modern Chinese life, constructing a complex
philosophical vision from swatches of daily events and observations. As
Yu Jian has written about his own work: "It is possible to see
eternity--to see everything--in a teacup or a sweet wrapper. Everything
in the world is poetry."
An eighteen-year-old college girl
walks to class on a spring morning
rosy cheeks long legs
inside a wool skirt
only a small wild part revealed
beautiful girl chest held high
a cup of tea between her hands
a book beneath her elbow
crossing the flower garden
looking straight ahead
she is rushing to catch
a philosophy class
Yu Jian, born in 1954 in Kunming, China, is a poet, author, and
documentary film director. He began writing poetry in the early 1970s,
influenced both by classical Chinese poetry and modern Western writers
such as Walt Whitman. Yu Jian is a major figure among the Third
Generation Poets" who came after the "Misty Poetry" movement of the
early 1980s.
Wang Ping's books include two collections of poetry, The Magic
Whip and Of Flesh & Spirit, and the cultural study Aching for
Beauty: Footbinding in China. Her novel The Last Communist Virgin was
winner of the 2008 Minnesota Book Award in the category of Novel & Short
Story and the 2007 Book Award from the Association for Asian American
Studies in the category of Poetry/Prose.
Ron Padgett's translations include Blaise Cendrars' Complete
Poems, Guillaume Apollinaire's Poet Assassinated, and, with Bill
Zavatsky, Valery Larbaud's Poems of A. O. Barnabooth. A chancellor of
the Academy of American Poets, Padgett was named officer in the Order of
Arts and Letters by the French government. In 2009 he received the
Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.
