Zhai Yongming

Zhai Yongming (born 1955) is a Chinese poet, essayist and screenwriter from Chengdu, in the southwest Sichuan Province. Born during the Maoist era, Zhai was forcibly sent away for two years to do manual labor in the countryside as part of the Cultural Revolution, eventually returning to Chengdu to work as a poet. She has been marked by scholars as a foundational Chinese feminist poet, being the first to explore elements of gender and feminine identity beyond the scope of the male-oriented gaze; 'Woman' has even been appointed as the starting point for the subsequent 'Black Tornado' era of confessional Chinese women writers. Among her most notable works include poetry works are 'Jing'an Village,' 'Plain Songs in the Dark Night (1997),' 'Collected Poems by Zhai Yongming (1994),' 'The Most Tactful Words (2009),' and 'Roaming the Fuchun Mountains with Huang Gongwang (2015).'

Though she was born during the Cultural Revolution's era of ' Misty Poets (朦胧诗人) ' writers, scholars tentatively agree that she belongs to the succeeding 'Newborn Generation (xinsheng dai 新生代)' poets as she had pushed their literary style further.

Zhai lived in the United States briefly from 1990 to 1992, and later in her career she opened a bar in Chengdu called White Nights, which became a well-known hub for artists to congregate at during cultural festivals. She often travels between Chengdu, Europe and the United States for international conferences and poetry festivals.

Zhai has screenwriter credits through co-writing with filmmaker Jia Zhangke on his movie 24 City, and is a co-founder of Wings, a Chinese feminist poetry journal.

Biography

Early life Zhai was born and raised in Chengdu, China, in the southwest of Sichuan Province. Like many others in her youth, she was made to work in the countryside as part of the Maoist era's plans for a Cultural Revolution, which reflected the idealistic push for women's entrance in the workforce as a means of gaining national wealth.

Main themes: gender, femininity, darkness, the subconscious mind and the dream Zhai's works predominantly rely on re-shaping normalized concepts gender and femininity, using imagery of darkness and the night to convey unquantifiable depths of emotion in her poetic dialogues. The poet exploits the night's traditionally 'feminine' connotations in Chinese culture to create metaphors for women's pain and explore their psyches under the quiet cover of moonlight. Her acclaimed poetry collection 'Woman' features poems exploring the subconscious feminine mind through such metaphors of darkness and dream, as well as providing a space where women who would normally feel invisible in the daytime can be 'seen' in the enlightening poetic space Zhai creates for them.

Style from 80s to 90s Zhai's style of writing in the eighties consisted of viewing the world from a historical perspective while employing a distinctly structured and direct style of prose, though by the nineties her writing becomes more flexible and fragmentary regarding the specificity of language.