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Jiang Tao (c) privat
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Jiang Tao, born in 1970, initially studied engineering before deciding for literature. Today he is the editor of the journal New Poetry Criticism and Lecturer for Chinese Literature in Beijing and is one of the major voices calling for a renewal in Chinese poetry. His texts are notable for their unexcited language, their wit and their irony. Jiang Tao uses the perspectives of his wide range of poetic personas to criticise various aspects of contemporary Chinese society. His poems are peopled by poverty-stricken pensioners, young emigrant workers and computer nerds, among others. But Jiang Tao does not only complain about social injustices. Instead, he uses ironic refractions to make the absurdity of supposed normality visible. His poems provoke laughter that sticks in the throat. Jiang Tao has been invited to many international literature festivals and has been awarded prizes including the renowned Liu Li'an Prize for Poetry.
Publications (a selection): Good News, Taipei: Showwe Informatics, 2013; The Book of Birds, Shanghai: Sanlian Bookstore, 2005; New Poetry Collections and the Formation of Chinese New Poetry, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2005; Tower in the Apartment: Literature and Youth in China in the 1920s, Beijing: Peking; University Press, 2015 Bakunin’s Hand, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2010; Anthology of a Century of Chinese New Poetry, Volume 16, Wuhan: Yangtze River Literature Press, 2013; Anthology of 20th-century Modern Chinese Poetry, Volume 1, Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 2010