Zheng Chouyu and the Search for Voice in Contemporary Chinese Lyric Poetry

Despite the paucity of scholarship on him in English, Zheng Chouyu (b. 1933; penname of Zheng Wentao) is a poet of considerable renown in Chinese-speaking communities. In Taiwan, for example, Zheng's broad popularity is second to none. His was ranked first by far in a poll of "classic" contemporary poetic works conducted by the United Daily News in the late 1990s (Chen Yizhi 1999: 507). Considering that many of his best-known poems were written forty to fifty years ago, this survey exhibits impressive longevity. The poet and critic Jiao Tong adds that the well-known selection of Zheng's poems Zheng Chouyu Shiji "is the most pervasive, best selling, and by far most influential collection of modern poetry in Taiwan" (Jiao 1999: 286). Originally published by Hongfan in 1979, the book has seen over sixty reprints. Another selection, several individual poetry collections, and a second volume to the Hongfan publication compete with each other, but all sell well. His verse is anthologized in textbooks, and musicians such as Li Taixiang have set it to music. In mainland China, Zheng enjoys some popular appeal as well and is known by most educated people. The scholarship in Taiwan on Zheng is voluminous. Mainland scholarship is considerably less, as one would imagine, but serious attention there has nonetheless been devoted to his work.