Gu Cheng (; September 24, 1956 – October 8, 1993) was a famous Chinese modern poet, essayist and novelist. He was a prominent member of the " Misty Poets", a group of Chinese

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

poets.

Biography

Gu Cheng was born in Beijing on 24 September 1956. He was the son of a prominent party member and the army poet Gu Gong. At the age of twelve, his family was sent to rural

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

because of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

(as means of re-education) where they bred pigs. There, he claimed to have learned poetry directly from nature. In the late 1970s, Gu became associated with the journal ''Today'' (''Jintian'') which began a movement in poetry known as " menglong" 朦胧 meaning "hazy", "obscure". He became an international celebrity and travelled around the world accompanied by his wife, Xie Ye. The two settled in Rocky Bay, a small village on

Waiheke Island Waiheke Island is the second-largest island (after Great Barrier Island) in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Its ferry terminal in Matiatia Bay at the western end is from the central-city terminal in Auckland. It is the most populated island ...

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1987. Gu taught Chinese at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

in the City of

. In October 1993, Gu Cheng attacked his wife with an axe before hanging himself. She died later on the way to a hospital. The story of his death was widely covered in the

Chinese media The mass media in the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of mass media and is under the direct ...

"A Generation"

The two-line poem titled "A Generation" ("一代人") was perhaps Gu Cheng's most famous contribution to contemporary

Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202 ...

. It had been considered an accurate representation of the younger generation during the Chinese

seeking knowledge and future. (translated by Juan Yuchi) The darkest night gave me dark-colored eyes Yet with them I'm seeking light 黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛我却用它寻找光明

Legacy

Gu Cheng's life was dramatised in the 1998 film ''The Poet'' (), which focussed on his recurrent depression and the murder of his wife.

References

External links

Dead in Exile: The Life and Death of Gu Cheng and Xie Ye
by Anne-Marie Brady. A personal account and review of several books about Gu Cheng and Xie Ye's last days.
Gu Cheng's Fortress
official website by a small group of people who studied Gu Cheng's work.

Prólogo al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013- Trad. Wilfredo Carrizales)

Crítica de Leonardo Sanhueza al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013)

Crítica de Alberto Hernández al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013) en Letralia {{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Cheng 1956 births 1993 suicides 1993 deaths Poets from Beijing Suicides by hanging in New Zealand Chinese emigrants to New Zealand People from Waiheke Island Misty poets 20th-century Chinese poets

Biography

"A Generation"

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links