2013/01/01 by Krista Van Fleit Hang · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance #Chinese history and philosophy
paper · doi:10.1057/9781137363220_2
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
These excerpts from the poem “Beijing” by Zou Difan, a Left-wing poet often associated with the declamatory poetry movement, were published in the second issue of the literary magazine People’s Literature (人民文学 Renmin wenxue ) on December 1, 1949. 1 The long poem celebrates the rich culture and history of the Chinese capital. The narrator’s vantage point from the top of the White Pagoda allows for a sweeping view of Beijing, activating a historical memory of the city. Starting with the invasion of foreign imperialists, the first third of the poem narrates the oppression that city dwellers in Beijing lived under for the first half of the twentieth century. The narrator describes young people in the streets protesting during the May Fourth movement, and then denounces the irony of the name Beiping (northern peace) under the rule of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Japanese armies. The narration of Beijing’s troubled history in the first third of the poem stands in contrast to the peaceful scenery in newly liberated Beijing, where everywhere the narrator looks he sees people working to rebuild the country, starting with its capital. He sees groups of workers who resemble blue bouquets of flowers, constructing sewage systems and installing electricity cables. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.