Like reading Chekhov or Turgenev reflected in a porcelain bowl.

The London Times

Waves

by Bei Dao

In Waves, Bei Dao—China’s foremost modern poet—turns to fiction, recording the painful years of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Avoiding polemics, his attention is on individuals—intellectuals and factory workers, drifters and thieves—swept up in the turbulent political tides of contemporary China. Bei Dao himself has been a victim of the censors, and he wrote the title novella clandestinely in a makeshift darkroom while ostensibly developing photographs. The author now lives in exile.

Paperback(published May, 01 1990)

ISBN
9780811211345
Price US
13.95

Clothbound(published May, 01 1990)

ISBN
9780811211338
Price US
22.95
Page Count
224
Portrait of Bei Dao

Bei Dao

Contemporary Chinese poet, representative of the Misty Poets.

Like reading Chekhov or Turgenev reflected in a porcelain bowl.

The London Times

Bonnie S. McDougall, an expert on modern Chinese literature and history, was one of the first Western scholars to see the brilliance of Bei Dao… Now the two volumes [The August Sleepwalker and Waves]… allow people who do not read Chinese to gauge the full range of Bei Dao’s work and also to appreciate his hauntingly sad imagery. Bei Dao uses words as if he were fighting for his life with them…. In Waves… the form lets Bei Dao explore his own self and his own society with more leisure… his stories are almost unbearably poignant.

Jonathan D. Spence, New York Times Book Review