BEI DAO LOOKS nothing like Bei Dao - at least not like the image of the rebellious poet in the minds of many of his readers. His neatly trimmed hair, tidy suit and gold-rimmed glasses make him look more a tame scholar than the leader of the most important poetry revolution in contemporary China.
Tall and slim, the 55-year-old looks too weak to have pushed through the crowds to post his underground literary publication on a public wall in Beijing during the post-Cultural Revolution democracy wall movement. It's hard to imagine that his soft voice is the same one that, 27 years ago, cried out, 'Let me tell you, world/ I - do - not - believe!' in Answer, his signature poem. After demonstrating students recited Answer at Tiananmen Square in 1989, western critics referred to it as the Chinese equivalent of Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind.
Sitting on a panel with novelists Gish Jen and Shan Sa at New York's International Literature Festival, Bei Dao appears quiet and even a little shy. He listens to his talkative co-panellists with eyes half closed, apparently in deep thought. He speaks briefly only when he's asked and seems to blush afterwards.
But then he reads his work. The voice turns resonant and passionate, and his body becomes animated as he reads from Untitled: 'The scout in the black uniform gets up/ takes hold of the world and microfilms it into a scream.'
Days later, Bei Dao is quiet once more. 'Literature is my sole dream,' he says. 'I was just involved in some political events because of the special situation in China. The whole thing is an unconscious process. It's more like history chose me than I made my own choice.'
More than 30 years ago, a young red-guard turned construction worker named Zhao Zhenkai started to deal with the pain of a broken Maoist dream and his lust for freedom through poetry. He struck a chord with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of young Chinese who, tired of propaganda slogans, were looking for ways to express their feelings.