An Exploration Into Bei Dao's Poetry And Their Acceptances In China And The West

As the main representative of Misty Poets, Bei Dao is a renowned poet all over the world. However, criticisms on Bei Dao and his poetry are different in China and in the West. Domestically, he is not only renowned but also controversial. To the public, Bei Dao is, on the one hand, a famous poet, a national hero, a fighter and a savior; and on the other hand, a spirit-polluter, a heretic and a nihilist. With the changing social environments, discussions of Bei Dao and his poetry have witnessed ups and downs, either being open-minded or hostile, moderate or intense. In all, criticisms on Bei Dao and his poetry in China have undergone great changes over years. By contrast, there are not many changes with the comments on Bei Dao and his poetry in the West. For example, Western readers are inclined to be concerned with certain themes in Bei Dao's poetry, such as democracy, individualism and humanism. Moreover, they tend to have a political reading of Bei Dao and his poetry and take strong interest in exilic identity of the poet in particular.The fact that there are such significant differences between reactions to Bei Dao and his poetry in China and in the West is closely related to readers'backgrounds, including different social and ideological milieu. According to reader criticism, a text is not a complete one until readers finish reading it. Interpretations of a text are different among readers of various backgrounds, social environments and ideologies. This thesis will then study the influences of different social, political and cultural situations on readers'interpreting of a text by analyzing, in the manner of comparison and contrast, causes of discrepancies relating to acceptances of Bei Dao and his poetry in China and in the West. In the perspective of cultural studies, the thesis argues that there are changes with acceptances of Bei Dao among readers in different historical periods in China. Likewise, readers'responses to Bei Dao's poetry in the West, the United States in particular, are in sharp disparity with those at home. It is proposed that different elements, such as social, historical and cultural environments in China and the West exert great influences on readers'interpretations of Bei Dao and his poetry.