Diary of a Sent-Down Youth - by Luo Ying (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Youth, ideals, and life of the "sent-down" (rusticated) youth during the cultural revolution.

Journal of the Cultural Revolution is a collection of poems depicting the lives of educated youth during the cultural revolution. The author uses poetry to reminisce about many friends and memorable experiences during their time as educated youth, reflecting how the era influenced individual destinies. The language is poetic and with bursts of unexpected insights with strong emotions and rhythms. At once a work of narrative lyricism and an act of personal courage, this memoir in verse documents the human cost of a period of political turmoil in China's recent past.

The "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" marked a critical passage on China's road to modernity, as momentous for the world as it was for one boy caught up in its throes. In poetry that juxtaposes the political and the personal, the social and the individual, Luo Ying depicts a time when ultra-leftist mass movements and factional struggles penetrated the deepest level of private daily life. In bleak yet vivid portraits he reveals how the period indelibly marred him. "I am a red guard just as I always was," he writes.

Giving voice to the inner life of a man haunted by his experiences, Journal of the Cultural Revolution bears witness to a traumatic time when ideology threatened to crush individuality. Luo Ying's poetry stands as eloquent testimony to the power of the individual voice to endure in the face of dire social and historical circumstances.

Review Quotes

Praise for Luo King:

This book presents a plethora of meditative scenes and wistful reflections. Flora and fauna real or metaphorical. Delight and sadness visceral or dreamlike. The poet is a disciple of ancient Chinese nature poets. Yet, he is also the epitome of the modern age: "I would rather my heart be racked by pain than be someone of no consequence." This book takes us on an imaginative adventure of the mind, gifting us with unexpected insights and mesmerizing beauty."--Yun Wang, author of The Book of Mirrors

"This book takes us on an imaginative adventure of the mind, gifting us with unexpected insights and mesmerizing beauty. It presents a plethora of meditative scenes and wistful reflections. Flora and fauna real or metaphorical. Delight and sadness visceral or dreamlike. The poet is a disciple of ancient Chinese nature poets. Yet, he is also the epitome of the modern age: "I would rather my heart be racked by pain than be someone of no consequence."--Jonathan Stallings

"Luo Ying's 7 + 2 A Mountain Climber's Journal, which he calls 'mankind's first "7 + 2 Poetry Action," ' is the poetic record of his successful summiting of the tallest peaks on every continent and his treks to the North and South Poles. He documents in searing detail his encounters, in the most extreme conditions, with other climbers, Sherpas, and himself.'While the rest of the world is sleeping, ' he writes, 'I'm striding toward the light'--and that light shines on every page of this extraordinary book. For 'the mountain god has allowed [him] to bring back from the mountains a way of being that is natural, assured, and collected.' This is wisdom literature of the highest order."--Christopher Merrill, author of Necessities

About the Author

Luo Ying is the pen name of Huang Nubo. Born in 1956 in Ningxia Province, China, he has published eleven collections of poetry and fiction. His work has been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Mongolian, Spanish and Icelandic. He is also an intrepid mountaineer and a key member of the Explorers Club in New York City. A successful Chinese real estate developer and entrepreneur, he is also founder of the Zhongkun Poetry Development Fund, the Sino-Japanese Poetry Fund, and the Sino-Icelandic Poetry Fund.

Denis Mair has translated the work of numerous Chinese poets into English, including the volumes Reading the Times: Poems of Yan Zhi and Selected Poems by Mai Cheng.