Split-Open Planet

As a poet, Jidi Majia stands out from the crowd, even though his poems were forged by the widespread cultural currents of our new world era. He writes in Chinese, but he belongs to the eight-million-strong Yi ethnic group, otherwise known as the Nuosu, who live in mountain areas not far from Vietnam and Thailand. Thus we can say that there is an additional layer of distance between this poet and our culture. Even so, European readers can readily understand his poems. The Yi People speak a language which belongs to the Tibeto-Burmese language family, and they have an independently developed writing system. Their culture preserves archaic elements related to animistic beliefs. Even now the Yi People put their trust in shamans (which they call Bimos). Bimos preside over weddings, cremations and ceremonies of childbirth. They make offerings to deities of mountains, trees, boulders and the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. The Yi language and writing system is now being taught in schools, but this has not always been the case. Jidi Majia's mentor was China's eminent poet Ai Qing. In his youth Jidi Majia pored over works of China's classical and twentieth-century literature, as well as Western literature. Yet his heart has remained tied to his own ethnic group-to that primal world view handed down by the Yi Minority which, being unknown to the world's major populations, holds an appealing novelty. Jidi Majia earnestly sympathizes with every ethnic group whose fate is beset by difficulties. His poems are extremely expressive, free-wheeling and rich in metaphor. In his frequently hyperbolic language and his roots-seeking" orientation, he has an affinity with post-modernist currents. Jidi Majia is strongly attached to use of folkloric elements, in a way that approaches magical realism. His writings are informed by the poetic practice of Africa, Europe and America. Readers will readily notice a strong stylistic connection to Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and poets of the "Negritude" school. In his works we can also trace a literary connection with eastern European poets, from Czeslaw Milosz to Desanka Maksimovic. He links up these Western sources with Chinese and Far Eastern tradition, especially with ageless myths and legends from the Yi People, to achieve wondrous and unexpected effects. For readers who endeavor to understand the era we live in, Jidi Majia's poems offer food for thought which will surely strike a chord of shared feeling"--

• | Author: Jidi Majia
• | Publisher: Regent Press
• | Publication Date: 1-Sep-21
• | Number of Pages: 246 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1587905795
• | ISBN-13: 9781587905797