Page 111 - AI WEIWEI CAHIERS D ART

free verse; he experimented with rhythm and cadence as well as repetitions and parallel constructions.
We know that Ai Qing’s life was a turbulent one: he resisted the Japanese occupation and joined the Chinese Communist Party. Under Communist rule in 1958, he was accused of right-wing tendencies and sent to a labor camp in Manchuria and then to Xinjiang. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), he was forced to work in a small village in Xinjiang province. He remained there until 1975, and then returned to Beijing. It was not until 1979 that he was rehabilitated and reintegrated into the Communist Party: he was allowed to publish his poems again and to travel abroad. If Emile Verhaeren is still known in China as one of the great European poets, it is thanks to the translations of Ai Qing, among others. In 1985 President François Mitterrand awarded him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Rik Hemmerijckx Custodian of Emile Verhaeren Museum
Bibliography
Geneviève Barman (G.) et Yau Shun-chiu (E.), A la mémoire de Ai Qing (1910-1996) à l’occasion de la fête du poète: http://yau.levieuxforgeron.com/French/pdf/poet_Ai_ Qing_fr.pdf.
Chantal Chen-Andro, «Ai Qing et Verhaeren», in Chantal Chen-Andro et Wang Zaiyua, Ai Qing. «De la poésie» «Du poète», Paris, Centre de recherche de l’université Paris VIII, 1982, p. 104-112.
Victor Vuilleumier (V.), «Ai Qing’s poetry and “Dayan River, My nurse”», in Ming Dong Gu et Tao Feng (éd.), Routledge Handbook of Modern Chinese Literature, New York, Routledge, 2018, p. 235-246.
Ai Qing, Emile Verhaeren’s poetry Xin Qun Publishing House, Shanghai, 1948
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