Gu Cheng (; September 24, 1956 – October 8, 1993) was a famous

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

modern poet, essayist and novelist. He was a prominent member of the "

Misty Poets The Misty Poets () are a group of 20th-century Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions on art during the Cultural Revolution. They are so named because their work has been officially denounced as "obscure", "misty", or "hazy" poetry (''m ...

", a group of Chinese

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

poets.

Biography

Gu Cheng was born in Beijing on 24 September 1956. He was the son of a prominent party member and the army poet Gu Gong. At the age of twelve, his family was sent to rural

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

because of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

(as means of re-education) where they bred pigs. There, he claimed to have learned poetry directly from nature. In the late 1970s, Gu became associated with the journal ''Today'' (''Jintian'') which began a movement in poetry known as " menglong" 朦胧 meaning "hazy", "obscure". He became an international celebrity and travelled around the world accompanied by his wife, Xie Ye. The two settled in Rocky Bay, a small village on

Waiheke Island Waiheke Island (; Māori: ) is the second-largest island (after Great Barrier Island) in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Its ferry terminal in Matiatia Bay at the western end is from the central-city terminal in Auckland. It is the most pop ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1987. Gu taught Chinese at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

in the City of

. In October 1993, Gu Cheng attacked his wife with an axe before hanging himself. She died later on the way to a hospital. The story of his death was widely covered in the

Chinese media The mass media in China consists primarily of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of communication by media, and is under the direct supervisi ...

"A Generation"

The two-line poem titled "A Generation" ("一代人") was perhaps Gu Cheng's most famous contribution to contemporary Chinese literature. It had been considered an accurate representation of the younger generation during the Chinese

seeking knowledge and future. (translated by Juan Yuchi) The darkest night gave me dark-colored eyes Yet with them I'm seeking light 黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛我却用它寻找光明

Legacy

Gu Cheng's life was dramatised in the 1998 film ''The Poet'' (), which focussed on his recurrent depression and the murder of his wife.

References

External links

Dead in Exile: The Life and Death of Gu Cheng and Xie Ye
by

Anne-Marie Brady Anne-Marie Sharon Brady (born 1966) is a New Zealand academic and Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury. She specialises in Chinese domestic and foreign politics, Antarctic and Arctic politics, Pacific politics, and ...

. A personal account and review of several books about Gu Cheng and Xie Ye's last days.
Gu Cheng's Fortress
official website by a small group of people who studied Gu Cheng's work.

Prólogo al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013- Trad. Wilfredo Carrizales)

Crítica de Leonardo Sanhueza al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013)

Crítica de Alberto Hernández al libro Cuatro Poetas Suicidas Chinos (Cinosargo 2013) en Letralia {{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Cheng 1956 births 1993 suicides Poets from Beijing Suicides by hanging in New Zealand Chinese emigrants to New Zealand People from Waiheke Island Misty poets 20th-century poets

Biography

"A Generation"

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links