Simmons College Chinese Poetry Conference (part 2) -- 顾爱玲 [by Eleanor Goodman]

This afternoon, the Simmons College Contemporary Chinese Poetry Conference came to an end, dispersing two dozen Chinese-language poets out into the world.  (Watch out, world!)  Some are headed back to the mainland or Taiwan or Hong Kong, some are traveling to New York or California, and a golden few are taking the opportunity to swing by Mexico while in the hemisphere.  One of those going on to the land of Corona happens to be our oldest participant, Qi Weiguo 齊衛國, who, at a spry 82, insisted on holding the door open for his fellow poets.

At the other end of the age and poetic style spectrum were Ye Mimi from Taiwan (left) and Kelly Tsai from Brooklyn (right), who added much flair to our Saturday night reading. Kelly’s political performance poetry and Ye Mimi’s witty, surrealistic poems set to music provided a fantastic opportunity to see into the future of Chinese and Chinese-American poetry, as well as raising the unanswerable question of what constitutes ‘Chinese poetry’.

 

And here’s how I spent most of the conference: crouched in the corner with a famous poet (in this case Beijing-based poet and critic Zhou Zan 周瓒, who, by the way, will be appearing at Wesleyan College this Tuesday), trying to solve problems like how the heck to get a file from one computer onto another language-incompatible computer.

It was sad to see so much artistic brainpower leave the building, but chances are very good Professor Afaa Michael Weaver will accept Simmons College’s invitation to do it all again in two years.  I hope to be there as well! –EG 顾爱玲