Verse Going Viral: China's New Media Scenes

Chapter 2 - Poetry in Print

81 c h a p t e r 2 Poetry in Print 1999, I was working for two magazines: one called Life Weekly one called Works of Film. If I were to use a journalistic tone to describe this year to you I would say: at the turn of the century a clap of sky-born thunder rolled past an airplane window: an old man on his way home saw a flash of lightning. And as for poetry— poetry was being slowly written by me on a piece of paper —yang li, “I Want to Use the Manner of Poetry To . . . ” (Wo yao yong yizhong shige de fangshi . . . ) When we are very close to a particular era, it is easy for us to overlook its importance; this is something we can recognize only when time has passed. Contemporary things will become classics and enter tradition in the future; what is happening right now is just a live scene. —yang ke, interviewed in Southern Metropolis Weekly Although the Internet has become the biggest and most versatile space for poetry production and interaction in the new millennium, printed texts have retained a unique ability to capture the imagination and stir the ambitions of Chinese poets. Poems that are first posted online are later sorted through and selected for inclusion in poetry journals, single-author collections, and anthologies. Less well-known poets make their work available in print through self-financed publications. Books and periodicals are distributed in person at poetry events, serving as gifts, badges of honor, and timely reminders of each writer’s talents and enthusiasm. Although the space allotted to modern and contemporary poetry in China’s bookstores is usually no more than two or three shelves—and even those are often dominated by collections of Mao’s classical-style poetry—the print space of poetry in chapter 2 82 the early twenty-first century demands critical attention, not least because of Chinese poets’ reluctance to abandon faith in the authority and permanence that surrounds the printed word. In this chapter I investigate the functions of print media within poetry scenes and the kinds of planning, cooperation, and gatekeeping that go on behind the scenes of print. More specifically, I focus on the role played by multiple-author poetry publications in distributions of discursive power within China’s poetry scenes. Throughout this book I borrow from Van Crevel a broad and non-medium-specific definition of publication as “the making public of a text beyond inner-circle audiences hand-picked by the author.”1 The key distinction of print publishing lies in the processes of material production: imprinting words onto paper, binding pages into books and journals , and distributing them across physical space to reach bookstores, libraries, offices, and homes. Official publication is defined as making print materials legally available for purchase through the acquisition of an ISSN or ISBN (shuhao). In China, it requires close cooperation with state-run publishing houses, printing presses, book agents, editors , censors, commercial distribution channels, bookstores, and the private agents who often provide the necessary capital. Book publication thus stands as an interesting case study of the historical conjuncture at the beginning of China’s twenty-first century. As part of the nation’s broader cultural system reforms, publishing houses have been granted a greater degree of financial and operational independence than ever before but are still expected to follow censorship guidelines issued by the party-state. Money is a much bigger issue for print than for online publication, as each stage of the publishing process requires economic support and modern poetry is far from being the kind of best-selling literature that is profitable for its authors and publishers. Politics, too, are a more pressing concern in print publication, as China’s differential system of media control means that poems that are published in print and available for sale legally through nationwide distribution networks are governed by far higher levels of self-censorship and pre- and post-publication scrutiny than those published on blogs and Internet forums. Print publications play a distinctive role within poetry scenes not only because of the types of decision making and institutional gatekeeping involved in the material production of books and journals but also because of the symbolism associated with print collections of poems in the development of post-Mao poetry—and indeed, Poetry in Print 83 throughout the premodern and early modern history of poetry...