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  • A Tower Built Downwards by Yang Lian book cover
  • A Tower Built Downwards by Yang Lian book cover
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A Tower Built Downwards

by Yang Lian

Poems shaped by personal and historical rupture

$19.78 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Poems shaped by personal and historical rupture

Yang Lian’s collection brings together short poems, sequences and a single long poem as a connected exploration of recent experience. Its subjects range from Hong Kong’s historical retrogression and the Covid-19 disaster to a wider spiritual crisis and the poet’s grief after his father’s death. The book’s publication history also forms part of its context: the description notes that some poems were removed from the edition published in China, while this edition presents the collection in full. Together, these strands place private loss alongside social and historical upheaval.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in contemporary Chinese poetry and its historical context
  • Readers seeking poetry that addresses exile, public events and personal grief

Themes

Historical changeExile and censorshipPandemicSpiritual crisisBereavement

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A Tower Built Downwards is the latest instalment of poetry from one of the most innovative and influential poets from China. Before and since his enforced exile from 1989, Yang Lian has been widely hailed in America and Europe as a highly individual voice in world literature, he has been translated into many languages.

 

The different sections - short poems, sequences, and one long poem - form a single comprehensive statement of Yang's recent explorations. It is rooted in his living experience of the historical retrogression of Hong Kong, the disaster of Covid-19, the global spiritual crisis, as well as his personal sadness at events such as his father's death.

Yang Lian's work was criticised in China in 1983 and formally banned in 1989 when he organised memorial services for the dead of Tiananmen while in New Zealand. This edition of A Tower Built Downwards contains the full, unabridged collection, including poems that were removed for its publication in China.

 

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