Diane Wei Liang

The hero of our times

Many years ago when I was at university, I read poems by the great contemporary Chinese poet Bei Dao. I had managed to get hold of a copy of his collected work, bought off someone who was associated with the underground printing shop.

Bei Dao's poetry was banned, but almost every student in China was reading or desperately wanting to read it. His voice was the conscience of the nation.

Then came the spring of 1989. We marched onto the streets of Beijing and into Tiananmen Square carrying Bei Dao's poems on our banners. His words seemed to speak to and for all of us, we took them on without hesitation or knowing that they would one day bring its author a life-long exile from his country. On June 4th, the army arrived. Tiananmen Square was cleared, students scattered. Time went on, some of us began new lives in foreign lands, China changed. Through the years Bei Dao's poetry remained with me, as a marking and a memory of a time, perhaps in the same way that Allan Ginsberg's work meant so much for the 1950's and 60's generation of young Americans.

We all have certain notions about our heroes, some of which have more to do with our high expectations than with reality. When I finally met Bei Dao at Sydney Writer's Festival last year, the reality was overwhelming but not at all disappointing. He was gentle and at the same time penetrating, just like the poetry, and reluctant, to almost a degree of discomfort, about his stature as the man who had inspired a generation.

I hosted a party for Bei Dao at my house when he was in London recently. When I called to invite my friends, I tried to think of a description that best suited him – Bob Dylan came to mind. There might be many things that we respect in a writer: their work (Bei Dao has been repeatedly short-listed for the Nobel Prize for literature), their intellect, wit or kindness. For me, Bei Dao stands for truthfulness. His reluctance to be labelled in any political terms, which would have certainly brought him more attention, is admirable. He is an artist who desires to speak what's in his heart and only that, and because of it, he'd always be my hero.

Diane Wei Liang, author