One even finds an open lyricism, although on that is still more obvious in the original Mandarin lines, which, to my surprise, rhyme: To heal their wounds" ("I Hear Cups" 1987) It is in the "real contentment" of "a ray of sunlight / Shining in a woodland clearing" ("Let Me Describe the Rainstorm" 1986) and in the "softer part" within him remembering "a lonely country life" ("The Softer Part" 1985). The poems from the late 80s in this collection offer a more urgent earnestness, sometimes even solemnity. The intended colloquialism of the poems never fails to evoke a laugh, yet his questions are real, valid questions. I say there is earnestness in Han, not because his tone is kept cool, but because of the sly humour that keeps his criticism from verging into cynicism. Read together, they appear to be self-defeating-while the son in "Mountain People" regrets that his forefathers had not persisted in migrating toward the coastline, the other poem tirelessly repeats back: "So you've seen the sea/ / Just like this, and nothing more," an rejoinder that may well have been given by the tired forefathers in "Mountain People" who cared not to see the sea. "Mountain People" (1982) and "So You've Seen the Sea" (1983) use essentially the same logic to question blatant ideals. Possessing an anti-climactic truth-telling quality, the poem is narrated in matter-of-fact calmness, flouting the high-flown sentimentality that still feeds many forms of social and literary discourse.
![lan laughing in the wind 2001 lan laughing in the wind 2001](https://booklypurple.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/fight-scene-13.jpg)
Tempted by the pagoda's official association with heroism, ordinary visitors, living a pathetic illusion, mount the tower only to experience an ordinary view:
![lan laughing in the wind 2001 lan laughing in the wind 2001](https://www.mdpi.com/energies/energies-13-01365/article_deploy/html/images/energies-13-01365-g002.png)
"Of the Wild Goose Pagoda" (1982) is such a poem, and one that made Han's name overnight. The handful of poems written in the early 80s gives you a poetics of explicit disbelief with still a latent earnestness. Each of these titles features the poet's recent, less-read work, as well as past, iconic musings, enabling the reader to see change or consistency, clarity or complexity within the writer's oeuvre.Ī Phone Call from Dalian does not present Han Dong's poems in chronological order, but, with their publication dates available, it takes only a little leafing back and forth to restore the sprawling varieties into something like a paradigm shift. And they remain new, for they continue to write. Yet they are new voices to the rest of the world. Innovative as they are, Han Dong and Lan Lan are by no means "new" writing figures in China, as both rose to fame in the 80s. The idea of casting both the old and new has certainly gone into the editing of this particular series. In its devoted, varied efforts to preserve, introduce and foster contemporary Chinese literature, JINTIAN represents an aspiration to fuse both past and future, nostalgia and hope, into an ever-present moment, the today of poetry. While the magazine was quickly forced to shut down, the impassioned voice of JINTIAN has persisted to this day.
![lan laughing in the wind 2001 lan laughing in the wind 2001](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5d2395e03c4e1b00081909cc/2:2/w_1631,h_1631,c_limit/000619_r7879.jpg)
#LAN LAUGHING IN THE WIND 2001 SERIES#
Han Dong's A Phone Call from Dalian and Lan Lan's Canyon in the Body are two fascinating poetry collections from the JINTIAN series of contemporary literature, a bilingual project "featuring new and innovating writing from mainland China and abroad." Literally meaning "today" and now a North American based literary enterprise, JINTIAN descends from the influential underground literary magazine of the same name published during the wave of avant-garde poetry in China in the 1980s. Lan Lan (author), Fiona Sze-Lorrain (translator), Canyon in the Body, The Chinese University Press, 2013, 184 pgs. Han Dong (author), Nicky Harman (editor and translator), A Phone Call from Dalian, The Chinese University Press, 2012, 108 pgs. The Persistence of Poetry: Han Dong's A Phone Call from Dalian and Lan Lan's Canyon in the Body