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Bei Dao

Bei Dao, who was forced into exile following the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, is widely treasured by those who participated in China’s democracy movement.

Dao is a member of China’s “misty school,” a movement of fresh poetics that emerged in the 1970s using “free verse” in a hermetic, semi-private language characterized by oblique imagery and elliptical syntax. Dao’s poetry depicts the intimacy of passion, love, and friendship in a society where trust can literally be a matter of life and death.

To read some of Bei Dao poems, click here.