by Chuanjie Yue, Lay Shi Ng
ABSTRACT
Bei Dao and Yang Lian are renowned exiled poets of Chinese origin; they were forced to go into exile at different junctures after 1989 and finally became naturalized citizens of other countries. Their poetry published in different periods is inundated with such complex and subtle feelings as their sense of belonging, sense of identity, and sense of loss toward their homeland, it also provides a good literary corpus in tracking their poetic development in different periods. In Chinese culture, “Jin Jiang Dai Hu” is often seen as a liminal space existing between different cultures, where the cultural interaction and negotiation take place. Despite having returned to China for visits since their effective displacement in 1989, both Yang Lian and, more prominently, Bei Dao unmistakably embody the essence of poets in exile. In a parallel vein, one could construct an argument for interpreting Wang Jiaxin’s stay in England as another instance of exile, reflecting the complexities of cultural and personal dislocation. They can be seen as cultural cosmopolitans whose poetry transcends the cultural and national limits. It enabled us to see how they reconcile the differences and bridge the interstices between different cultures through the perspective of “Jin Jiang Dai Hu”.
