3 Review(s)

Qingxiang’s appearance makes me see the spiritual depth of the younger generation of the Chinese poets. If the poets of the motherland reappear among the young poets, it is a gospel and a mission. —Yu Jian, famous Chinese poet Yang Qingxiang is a leading Chinese poet today. I Choose to Cry and Love You is a celebration of the contemporary China on a grand scale. An advocate of ‘new scar’ movement in the Chinese literature, Qingxiang deals with ‘pangs of isolations against nothingness’ and weaves an imposing narrative to cope up with new found Chinese affluence that has stunned the world. Translated for the first time into Nepali by world renowned Himalayan poet, Yuyutsu Sharma, this bilingual edition is a valuable addition to the Asian literature that along with the continent’s sudden rise to prominence is eagerly awaiting all the laurels it deserves. “Contrary to the expected clichés of an agitated working class struggle and its victory song,” writes Yuyutsu Sharma in the Introduction to the book, Qingxiang’s poetry “goes the other direction; it quietly moves to locate a silent, restful moment in the bustling life of modern China that produces almost everything the world needs today.” Qingxiang celebrates quiet moments of silence on an epic level and in the process what emerges is “a brilliant but varied face of present-day China looking for its true global identity.” I Choose to Cry and Love is a rare treasures to be preserved by all interested in fresh literature being produced in Asia today.