Duo Duo began to write poetry in the early 1970s when the Cultural
Revolution was still in full swing. He was obliged to write
clandestinely, never imagining he would have readers. He continued to
write throughout the 1980s, publishing in samizdat publications, and
then more openly as the authorities relaxed their grip. Duo Duo left
China for a reading tour of England June 4th 1989, the morning after the
Tiananmen massacre that he had witnessed.
Duo Duo's poetic vision embraces a historical and political vision that
is much more diverse, more global than that circumscribed by the
confines of the last third of China's twentieth century. The context of
China, Duo Duo's lived experience, is necessarily present in the poet's
imaginary, but it is diffused in a world-view that embraces all of
modern humanity's dilemmas, our increasing separation from nature, and
our alienation from one another. The exile, like the hybrid and other in
between subjects, writes of China with the benefit of critical distance,
but also writes with an exceptional perspective of wherever he finds
himself.
Before leaving China, Duo Duo worked as a journalist. His writing has
been widely translated and published throughout the world, including two
small selections of his work--in English--published in the UK and
Canada. Generally associated with the other menglong (ambiguist)
poets, such as Bei Dao and Yang Lian. Duo Duo currently lives and
teaches in the Netherlands.
Gregory Lee currently lives in France and teaches at l'Université Jean
Moulin Lyon III. He has also taught at the Universities of Cambridge,
London, Chicago and Hong Kong. His translations of Duo Duo and other
Chinese poets have appeared in numerous publications, including
Fissures: Chinese Writing Today (Zephyr Press), and Abandoned Wine
(Wellsweep Press).
Also available
Fissures: Chinese Writing Today
TP $14.95, 0-939010-59-3 - CUSA
