I am quite desperate,' says Bei Dao, the celebrated mainland poet and mastermind of next week's International Poetry Nights festival (IPNHK). He is talking about the lack of imagination in Hong Kong's education system.
'During the different courses I teach on writing, I [see] that my students have lost their creativity. They have become 'one-dimensional [men]' as Herbert Marcuse said half a century ago. But what can we do? You can't fight with a huge machine as Don Quixote did,' he says.
This from the man whose poetry inspired so many of the students who gathered at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, and whose underground literary magazine Today ushered in a new era of hope and enlightenment during some of Beijing's darkest days.
Bei Dao is far from tilting at windmills, and has in part answered his own question. One of the festival's main objectives is to encourage Hong Kong's young people to appreciate poetry in the hope that they will make a difference to the city's 'undetermined future'.
'Political, social and economic situations may change over time, but metropolises like London, New York, Paris and even Tokyo are undoubtedly recognised as 'world cities' because they have developed themselves as the energy sources of culture,' he says.
'If Hong Kong does not want to dim its radiance as the 'Pearl of the East', it should uphold a strong sense of cultural self-awareness.'
