MCLC: politics, literature, and culture (5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: politics, literature, and culture (5)
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Much has been written, remarked and reported on violent incidents, attacks
and terrorism in the last few years. The demolition of Kashgar and the
situation of many Uighurs in Xinjiang has come to attention again. I think
the Blog posts and Micro-blog comments transcribed at China Digital Times
are very important for understanding the whole situation. Empathy,
sympathy, finding the right words, what is the news media for, what is
literature for, what are Chinese Studies for, or Email lists- important
food for thought, again and again. Michael Duke, A. E. Clark, Paul Mooney
and others have raised very important points in this present discussion.
Speaking of general thoughts on society, culture and literature, there is
this poem by Shen Haobo I recently saw on Yi Sha's daily poetry Micro-blog
Xi Shiji Shidian 新世纪诗典 - New Century Poetry Canon, or maybe New Century
Poetry Encyclopedia. You can see the original here:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_68d111990101nvlh.html

Martin

Shen Haobo
REPUBLIC
 

all those so-called platonists
all those rotten at heart
all those taking themselves for judges and kings
all those dreaming of giving
directions to mankind
all those fat shining bugs
wagging their hidden poisonous hairs
banning lions and wolves
banning desperate youths
banning indecent wives
banning loonies and thieves
banning beggars and thugs
banning satan
banning contrary jesus
banning poets
banning me
without need
you don't need to ban me
I was just passing by
just came looking to see how you're doing at home
I have seen enough
your republic
holds no place for loonies and no place for me
 

2013-10-07
Tr. MW, Febr. 2014