Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Translated from the Chinese by Ye Chun. "For over two decades, March 26th has marked the day when college students across China hold vigils for the
poet Hai Zi, reciting his poetry and sharing their own poems dedicated to him. Newspapers and magazines publish memorial articles and the latest critical essays on his work. People travel from
far and near to visit his tomb in the otherwise forgotten village of Chawan. It was on this day in 1989 that Hai Zi laid his body down on a rail track near Beijing Shanhaiguan and ended his
life at the age of twenty five.
"In modern Chinese history, few poets have been revered to the extent that Hai Zi has. Not only is he one of the most read contemporary poets, but also one of the most imitated—his folkloric
simplicity, imagistic clarity, his motifs of wheat, wheat field, village, and grassland have found their way into many Chinese poems written today. Mostly unknown during his lifetime, he has
been posthumously crowned with such titles as ’the genius poet’, ’the purest poet,’ ’the poet martyr,’ and ’the poet who has changed a whole generation’s writing of poetry.’"Ye Chun, from her
introduction
