Yang Lian

Yang Lian was born in Switzerland in 1955, and grew up in Beijing. He began writing when he was sent to the countryside in the 1970s. On his return to Beijing he became one of the first group of young ‘underground’ poets, who published the literary magazine Jintian. Lian’s poems became well-known and influential inside and outside of China in the 1980s, especially when his poem Norlang was criticized by the Chinese government during the ‘Anti-Spiritual Pollution’ movement.

Lian was invited to visit Australia and New Zealand in 1988 and became a poet in exile after the Tian’anmen massacre. Since that time, he has continued to write and speak out as a highly individual voice in world literature, politics and culture. Yang Lian has published ten selections of poems, two selections of prose and many essays in Chinese. His work has also been translated into more than twenty languages. His thoughtful and inspired works have been called “one of the most representative voices of Chinese literature”. Yang Lian has been living in London since 1997.