(We reported the news of this gigantic anthology the other day…)
In the Preface of the “Canon”, the two editors-in-chief, Hong Zicheng (1939- ) from Beijing (Peking) University and Cheng Guangwei (1956- ) from Renmin (People’s) University, talked about the 100 years of Chinese New Poetry and formation of this huge anthology of 30 volumes, about 10 authors in each volume, the first 10 devoting to modern poets from 1917 and the rest 20 volumes covering 200 poets of contemporary period from 1949 to present time. The following green image of the Preface shows all the names of the 300 poets. FYI.
A warning to the readers. This comprehensive list does not cover ALL the important poets in modern and contemporary Chinese poetry, for various reasons. Jiang Tao (one of the 30 editors) tried to include Liao Yiwu in the volume that he was editing. But as readers can see that Liao Yiwu is missing from the “canon”, because Jiang Tao was unable to reach him in Berlin and because of some censorship that would eventually eliminate him anyway. Xia Yu from Taiwan is also missing — Yang Xiaobin said on the Chinese facebook that she didn’t give permission to have her work printed in simplified version of Chinese language.
Also on the Chinese facebook, the publisher has revealed the selecting process: each of the 30 editors can propose a 300-poets list which is subject to discussion and voting. 666 poets were nominated. In the end, only those who got 4 votes or more from the editing members can be included in the canon.
PoetryEastWest 