Twentieth-Century Chinese Women's Poetry：An Anthology

题材文章词数书评388 难度 ★★★体裁建议用时说明文7 min

难词探意

1. anthology /ænɪθɒlədʒi/ n. （不同作家作品的）选集

2. forerunner /ɪfɔːrʌnə(r)/ n. 先驱；先行者

3. melancholy /ɪmelənkəli/ n. 忧郁

4. grotesque /ɡrəʊɪtesk/ adj. 怪诞的

Twentieth-Century Chinese Women's Poetry： AnAnthology， edited and translated by Julia C.Lin， is a much-needed collection of modern Chinese women's poetry in translation for readers who are interested in modern Chinese poetry and women's verse in particular.

The anthology includes selections from the works of an extraordinary range and diversity of women poets， from the pioneering Bing Xin and Lin Huiyin， who were writing at the birth of New Poetry in the early 1920s， to the experimental poets from both Mainland China and Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s who were writing with an increasing feminist consciousness. Two hundred and forty-five representative poems of sixteen women poets from Mainland China and twenty-four from Taiwan are collected here.

In the extensive and very informative introduction， Julia C. Lin and Nicholas Kaldis trace the development of modern Chinese women's poetry from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century， with a special focus on the exploration of the poetic expressions from women's perspectives. Shu Ting， the most prominent female poet emerging in the post-Mao era， is also considered by Lin and Kaldis a poet whose work mainly operates on the border between the traditional feminine mode and feminist poetics.It is not until the 1980s and 1990s，Lin and Kaldis argue，that a new generation of poets emerges from both Mainland China and Taiwan to write poems with a more consciously feminist agenda. These poets focus much of their attention on the “exploration and discovery of self”and the “quest for a gender identity” and demonstrate in their works feminist consciousness that is all but absent in the work of theirforerunners.

Seven poems of Lin Huiyin， a representative poet of China's first generation of women poets， are collected in the anthology. Writing primarily in the traditional feminine mode， Lin nevertheless expands the range of themes and tones that women poets might adopt. Unlike her contemporary Bing Xin， who strives to inspire readers with idealized visions， Lin Huiyin insists more on revealing the difficulties of actual experience and expresses often in her poems a deepmelancholywith“grotesque” imagery.

There is no doubt that this is an outstanding anthology， and it makes an important contribution to our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century Chinese women's poetry.

Reading Check

Write a summary for the text with about 60 words.

Language Study

Sentence for writing

It is not until the 1980s and 1990s， Lin and Kaldis argue， that a new generation of poets emerges from both Mainland China and Taiwan to write poems with a more consciously feminist agenda.

【信息提取】在本句中，“it is not until...that...”为强调句型，主要用于强调时间状语。

【句式仿写】直到她摘下墨镜，我才意识到她是一位著名的电影明星。