Ai Qing

Ai Qing
Born	Jiang Zhenghan (蔣正涵) 27 March 1910(1910-03-27) Fantianjiang village, Jinhua county, Zhejiang province, China
Died	5 May 1996(1996-05-05) (aged 86)
Pen name	Ejia (莪加) Ke'a (克阿) Linbi (林壁)
Occupation	poet
Language	Chinese
Nationality	Chinese
Citizenship	Chinese
Alma mater	Hangzhou Xihu Art School
Period	1936-1986
Children	Ai Xuan, Ai Weiwei
Influences Vladimir Mayakovsky, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Immanuel Kant, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Ai Qing (Chinese: 艾青; born Jiǎng Zhènghán (蔣正涵) and styled Jiǎng Hǎichéng (蔣海澄); March 27, 1910 – May 5, 1996), is regarded as one of the finest modern Chinese poets. He was known under his pen names Línbì (林壁), Kè'ā (克阿) and Éjiā (莪伽).

Life

He was born in Fantianjiang village (販田蔣), Jinhua county, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. After entering Hangzhou Xihu Art school in 1928, under the advice of principal Lin Feng Mian (林風眠), he went abroad and studied in Paris the following spring. From 1929 to 1932 while studying in France, besides learning art of Renoir and Van Gogh, the philosophy of Kant and Hegel, he also studied modern poets such as Mayakovsky and was especially influenced by Belgian poet Verhaeren.

After returning to Shanghai, China in May 1932, he joined China Left Wing Artist Association, and was arrested in July for opposing the Kuomintang party. During his imprisonment, Ai Qing translated Verhaeren's poems and wrote his first book Da Yan River--My Wet-nurse (《大堰河——我的保姆》), "Reed Flute"(《蘆笛》), and "Paris"(《巴黎》). He was finally released in October 1935.

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Ai Qing wrote "Snowfall on the Chinese earth" (《雪落在中國的土地上》) after arriving at Wuhan to support the war effort. In 1938, he moved to Guilin to become the editor of "Guixi Daily" newspaper. In 1940, he became the dean of the Chinese department at Chongqing YuCai University.

In 1941, he moved to Yan'an, and joined the Chinese Communist Party in the subsequent year. Beginning in 1949, he was on cultural committees. He was editor of Poetry Magazine, and associate editor of People's Literature.

However in 1957, during the Anti-Rightist Movement, he defended Ding Ling, was accused of "rightism", and in 1958 exiled to farms in northeast China, and then in 1959 transferred to Xinjiang by the Communist authorities. He was not allowed to publish his works Return Song(《歸來的歌》) and Ode to Light(《光的讚歌》) until he was reinstated in 1979. In 1979, he was vice-chairman of the Chinese Writers Association.

He made a second journey to France in 1980, and in 1985 French president François Mitterrand awarded him the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Family

He is the father of famed Chinese artist and architect Ai Weiwei, who participated in designing the Beijing National Stadium, and artist Ai Xuan. He had two daughters with his second wife.

Pen name

In 1933, while tortured and imprisoned by Kuomintang party, when writing his book DaAn River—My Wet-nurse, while writing his surname (Jiang, 蔣) he stopped at "艹"; due to his bitterness towards KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek ("蔣介石"), he resented sharing the same surname (Jiang / Chiang) and finished the rest of the word with an X. This happens to be the Chinese character ai (艾), and since the rest of his name, Hai Cheng meant qing (青, the color blue), he adopted the pen name Ai Qing.

Works

• Kuangye (1940; “Wildness”)
• Xiang taiyang (1940 “Toward the Sun”)
• Beifang (1942; “North”)
• Guilai de ge (1980; “Song of Returning”)

• Ai Qing quanji (“The Complete Works of Ai Qing”) in 1991.

Works in French

• Le chant de la lumière «Guang de zange » 光 的 赞 歌, éditor, translator Ng Yok-Soon. Ed. les Cent fleurs, 1989
• De la poésie ; Du poète / Ai Qing « Shilun » 詩 論, translator Chantal Chen-Andro, Wang Zaiyuan, Ballouhey, Centre de recherche de l’Université de Paris VIII, 1982
• ''Poèmes / Ai Ts’ing, éditor, translator Catherine Vignal. Publications orientalistes de France, 1979.
• Le récif : poèmes et fables / Ai Qing, éditor, translator Ng Yok-Soon. Ed. les Cent fleurs, 1987

Works in English

• Eugene Chen Eoyang (ed), Selected Poems of Ai Qing, Indiana University Press, 1982

Anthologies

• Edward Morin, Fang Dai, ed. (1990). The Red azalea: Chinese poetry since the Cultural Revolution. Translators Edward Morin, Fang Dai, Dennis Ding. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824813208. http://books.google.com/books?id=1rkPu4q1uXYC&pg=PA3&dq=ai+qing&hl=en&ei=8ZjOTffcBcTa0QGH4dmEDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=ai%20qing&f=false. 
• Joseph S. M. Lau, Howard Goldblatt, ed. (2007). The Columbia anthology of modern Chinese literature. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231138413. http://books.google.com/books?id=DRt84_yIsrAC&pg=PA516&dq=ai+qing&hl=en&ei=8ZjOTffcBcTa0QGH4dmEDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=ai%20qing&f=false. 

Further reading

• Chinese Writers on Writing featuring Ai Qing. Ed. Arthur Sze. (Trinity University Press, 2010).
• Nils Göran David Malmqvist, European Science Foundation, ed. (1989). A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900-1949: The poem. BRILL. ISBN 9789004089600. http://books.google.com/books?id=-KzbQM2sAjoC&pg=PA37&dq=ai+qing&hl=en&ei=8ZjOTffcBcTa0QGH4dmEDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ai%20qing&f=false. 

Sources

• Columbia Encyclopedia
• Obituary (French)
• asiaweek.com Obituary
• Ai Qing Museum (Chinese)