Split-Open Planet
Published on 1. September 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
246 pages
978-1-58790-579-7 (ISBN)
Description
Split-Open Planet consists of a collection of Jidi Majia latest poems, speeches and interviews that, read together, form a compelling portrait of the most popular ethnic poet China has to offer in the past three decades .
With the publication of his first poetic volume"Songs of First Love" at the age of 22,Jidi majia won the national poetic prize and established himself as the most popular ethnic poet in China(China's small minority nationalities totalling 80 miilion divided into 55 separate groups), for both critics and his devoted readership.
Now, in this book,, he takes us on a figurative journey , exploring the challenges and joys of the human experience through the eyes of the son of a former chief in a remote tribe in Western China.
Jidi Majia's prodigious poetic output centers around the ethnic elements, ranging from his Yi identity to humanity. Major variants concern social issues and olden verities in present day China and the world, both practiced with intelligence and skill, earning him a lasting niche with passing years.
Vilified with good sense and sentiment, and peppered with Yi animistic beliefs and wisdom, his work adresses elemental themes about conservation of our physical world and cultural diversity, the innocence and sacredness of indigenous cultures, his terrestrial connection to Land and Life etc.
Included are his two latest long poems such as The Belated Elegy, praised as "an impressive poetic concept, mirroring the spiritual evolution and wealth of philosophy of the Yi people" as well as The Split Planet, in which he shows himself most gainly as a poet-thinker meditating on the invisible "world war" provoked by the corona-virus pandemic, conveying the tragedy spliting our world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.. Both have been translated into17 languages and have had a sizable impact on reders home and abroad.
A poet in action , Jidi Majia has initiated a number of high-profile international poetic events such as Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival, Chengdu Intl Poetry Week etc.These events have turned out to be a worldwide cataclysmic event, an integrative process, fostering a sense of shared ideals among poets from around the world.Thet prove high points for Chinese poets who find themselves united together with their overseas peers by both prosodic and cultural causes.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
425 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-58790-579-7 (9781587905797)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jidi Majia is the most recognizable and iconic poet in contemporary China today, and he writes about his ethnic background with continual creativity and spiritual strength. An outstanding poet who has gained a wide international reputation and promoted the development of Chinese poetry, Jidi follows in the footsteps of the twentieth-century Chinese poet Ai Qing (1910-1996).As China's most prominent poet of the Yi ethnicity, Jidi Majia writes compellingly about his ethnic heritage. At the same time, he has surpassed his personal background and the habits of other more narrow poets to become a true poet of the world.Jidi Majia was born in June of 1961 in southwest China in the largest Yi ethnic area in the country, the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture. When he was 24 years old, his collection of poems Self-Portraits and Others won him the second National Ethnic Minority Literary Award in Poetry (1981-1984). At 25, he went on to win China's highest national poetry award, the third National Excellence Award for a Poetry Collection (1985) for his book Songs of First Love (Sichuan Ethnic Minority Press, 1985). To this day, he is still the youngest poet ever to win this honor.