Misty Poets

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The Misty Poets (simplified Chinese: 朦胧诗人; pinyin: Ménglóng Shīrén) are a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. They are so named because their work has been officially denounced as "obscure" or "misty" poetry (menglong shi). The movement was initially centered on the magazine Jintian (Chinese: 今天; pinyin: Jīntiān; literally "Today"), which was published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned.

The four most important Misty Poets, Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian were exiled after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Other Misty Poets like Mang Ke and Shu Ting remain in China. Jintian was resurrected in Sweden in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers.

The work of the Misty Poets has had a strong influence on the lyrics of China's first generation of rock musicians, particularly Cui Jian.

[edit] References

Barnstone, Tony, ed. (1993). Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese Poetry. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-1210-9.
Jones, Andrew F. (1992). Like a Knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music. Cornell East Asia series, no. 57. Ithaca, New York: East Asia Program, Cornell University. ISBN 0-939657-57-0.