Biography of Huang Xiang

Born on December 26, 1941, a native of Guidong County of Human Province, China, Mr. Huang Xiang earned his nation-wide fame in a unique way. His father, Huang Xianming, studied at the Empire University in Tokyo, Japan, in his early youth. Once a high-ranking official in the Kuomingdang Army, Huang Xianming was shot to death in jail by secret order in Mainland China. A graduate of the Chinese Department of Fudan University in Shanghai, Huang Xiang's mother, Gui Xueshan, lost touch with her dear son, Huang Xiang for virtually half a country after the liberation of the county. With his family in straitened circumstances and because of class bias, Huang Xiang lost opportunities to go to school from early childhood. But relying on self-study, Huang Xiang read widely and obtained wide knowledge in many fields such as literature, philosophy, politics, and religion.

Beginning in 1958, Huang Xiang's poems were published in “the Nation-wide Selection of Poems, 1958”. He was a member of the Guizhou Branch of the Writers Association of China, the youngest member at that. But not long after, he was persecuted politically and was expelled from the Writers Association of China. Ever since the 1960s, Huang Xiang has been engaged in the prolonged secret creation of literary works in Mainland China. Directed against the acute bondage of the totalitarian ideology, he fought fierce spiritual fights politically, ideologically, and culturally to safe-guard the conscience of humanity, freedom of spirit and the independence of humanity, freedom of spirit, and the independence and development of the individualism of life. From 1959 to 1995, Huang Xiang was severely persecuted and was imprisoned six times.

On Oct. 10th, 1978, Huang Xiang created the first folk organization “The Enlightenment Agency” in Beijing in the period of “The Wall of Democracy” of Mainland China. He also created the first folk periodical “The Enlightenment”, which was distributed freely, he himself being the Chairman and the General Editor of the Agency and the Periodical. He advocated democracy and human rights, initiating the earliest movement of New Modern Poems. He publicly expressed the opinion on big posters and local periodicals that Mao Tsedong's record should be reassessed as 70 percent achievements and 30 percent mistakes, and that the Cultural Revolution must be re-evaluated. He also raised the question of Chinese human rights, which were brought to international attention for the first time. In a letter to President Carter, which he made public in Tiananmen Square, he made public his opinion that human rights have no boundaries and that while paying attention to the human rights of the American people the United States should also pay attention to the human rights of peoples elsewhere in the world, especially to the human rights of the people in the communist camp. This contributed to President Carter's changing America's foreign policy, which in turn changed dramatically the diplomatic policy of America and other countries in the western world and quickened the collapse of the communist system itself. Like the explosion of nuclear weapons, the tow slogans and one letter greatly shook the world the both China and abroad. At the same time, Huang Xiang published a series of poems titled “The Poetic Symphony of the God of Fire” which fight against wicked totalitarianism, and lash at darkness and the modern god-making movement and worship of idols and superstition of individuals. Of these “White Bones”, “Brutes”, “Song of Torches”, “The fallen Idol”, “I Saw a War Going On”, “Vindication of the Great Wall”, “China, Silent No Longer” etc. were all written and read in the period of the Red Terror, that is during the height of the Cultural Revolution.

As the writer and reciter, Huang Xiang had a narrow escape. Of his works published at that time there was also a series of lover poems - “My Sonata”, and the long poems “Youth, Listen to Me Sing a Song of Desperation”, Eulogy of the Wall of Democracy”, and political commentaries “To President Carter”, and “On the Actions and Reactions of Historical Figures to History”.

“The Poetic Symphony of the God of Fire” was published in 1979 with whole pages on the “Chinese Times”. His poems and political comments written in the period of the “Wall of Democracy” were published in English and Chinese in regions and countries such as the United State, France, Taiwan, and Hongkong.

As early as in 1979, plans were made to publish Huang Xiang's works in “Chinese Poetry”, “Chinese Literature”, “Peoples' Daily”, “Guangming Daily” in Mainland China but the plans were later cancelled because the authorities secretly issued the order to “No publication of Huang Xiang's works and no spreading of his influence!” At the same time, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party agreed that the “Enlightenment Agency” would hold a public press conference for Chinese and overseas reporters in Beijing. But because Huang Xiang would not change his way and insisted on his ideological standing, and especially because he wrote an article titled, “I Speak Standing on the Door-way of China”, which greatly angered the Chinese authorities, the conference was cancelled.

Subsequently “The Enlightenment agency” was banned and “The Enlightenment” was closed by the authorities. The name of Huang Xiang and Huang Xiang's works were strictly controlled and were buried in oblivion for almost tow decades. As a result, not many people know his name. But in spite of this predicament and difficulties he met with in life, he never gave up the pursuit of truth and his belief in the wisdom and conscience of humanity. He continued participating in the underground literature movement. Following “Enlightenment”, Huang Xiang joined with others in creating popular Mainland journals and periodicals Such as “The Rising Generation,” The Star Circle of the Celestial Body of Chinese Poetry,” and “Big Disturbance,” with him being one of the main contributors to these magazines. Although his works were banned and destroyed time and again over the past half a century, Mr. Huang Xiang has never stopped writing his poetry. Now he has finished over ten books including a Collection of Poems written in different times, such as “Turmoil.” “Demon,” “Portrait of the Weak,” ”World, Your Body and Your Hidden Body,” “Elegy of Human Beings and the World,” “Artery and the Heavenly-Blue Veins,” a collection of his theories of poems and articles, “Naked Wounds,” and Philosophy in Poetic Style, “The Meditating Thunderstorm,” and the several volume novel of semi-biography “Escape,” as well as prose and informal essays “The Record of Enlightenment of the Dreamy Nest,” political commentary and reminiscences, etc. which were written over a period of more than ten years.

From 1992, Huang Xiang was listed in “Who is Who” in Britain and the United States. In 1993, he was invited to visit the United States. He was conferred the first class award of Freedom of Speech for writers by the organization of “International Observation of Human Rights” ￡¨Hellman-Hammett Grants ￡?in 1994.

In 1995, The writers Publishing House, Beijing, China, signed a formal contract with Huang Xiang intending to publish a series of his works. But immediately after the publication of “Huang Xiang, A Brute, Drinking Crazily but Never Drunk” the first big Selection of Poems, was published, it was ordered not to be distributed. All his other works were banned subsequently. Thus he was deprived of the right to publish. To protect his human rights of freedom of creation, _expression, speech, and publication, and facing the huge state machine, Huang Xiang carried out a legal fight of anti-dictatorship versus the cultural dictatorship, and was forced to sue the system of dictatorship in its own court. Because of this, Huang Xiang and his wife, Zhang ling, also named “Qiuxiao yulan” was taken by surprise and kept in the notorious Camp of Collection and Examination of Changping, in Beijing, Meant to be crushed and persecuted both in body and in spirit, even to death, Mr. and Mr. Huang were tortured brutally there like beasts.

In recent years, the movement to rewrite the history of Chinese literature is growing more powerful with each passing day. To do a thorough reform, some renowned scholars are breaking through the blockade of the authoritative ideological system and beginning to take a just attitude toward Huang Xiang from the viewpoint of history and culture. Never before has Huang Xiang been able to have any thing published by the Chinese authority, not even a single poem or a book in Mainland China. But his poems written during the Cultural Revolution and published in the form of big posters and mimeographed periodicals have never stopped appearing. On the contrary, his works were universally recognized by people with good conscience and greatly appreciated by knowledgeable persons in the world of culture and ideology. Universally recognized as a man wading in agony alone in the Tide of Modem Poems, Huang Xiang's poems were published for the first time in 1993 and were put in conspicuous pages on the “Review of Modem Tide of Poetry,” a series of reference books on writing techniques, which were published by the Publishing House of the Beijing Teachers' University. “New Poems of the Twentieth Century,” a treatise even devoted a whole chapter to him. In the mean time his works were selected for inclusion in a series of books on the twentieth century. “A Series of One Hundred Year's' Classical Works of Chinese Literature,” “Haitian Publishing House,” “One Hundred Years' Classics of Chinese literature,” “Publishing House of Beijing University,' and “One Hundred Years' Chinese Literature.” “Chinese Contemporary literary historiography (a textbook)”,”100 Contemporary Writings”. etc. Just recently, the Mainland China's authorities made public a list of ten persons' names whose works are forbidden to be published in newspapers and magazines, of which that of Huang Xiang is once again one. His works having been banned for quite a few decades and now this ban being reaffirmed, Huang Xiang and his wife Qiuxiao Yulan, who have been persecuted ceaselessly, were forced into exile in the United States. His poetic heart, however, will be forever firmly fastened to China.

Between 1997 and 2003, many of his works have been published, including collections of poems, prose, essays, his auto-biography and his long novel including “Huang Xiang, A Brute, Drinking Crazily but Never Drunk” (US), “Forbidden and Destroyed Poems of Huang Xiang” (Hong Kong), “Notes in a Dream Nest” (Taiwan), “The Blood of Freedom” (New York), a series of his collections of poems (6 volumes) and essays (3 volumes) (Taiwan). Huang Xiang's first collection of poetry translated into Japanese --“Huang Xiang's Poetry And Poetry Thinking”-- came out in 2003. The first collection of poetry translated into English --“A Bilingual Edition of Poetry Out Of Communist China By Huang Xiang”-- came out in March 2004.

Since November 2004, Huang Xiang has lived in Pittsburgh as writer in residency, under North America City of Asylum Network program. Tom Murphy, the Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh declared Sunday, November 21, 2004, to be “ Huang Xiang Day” in the City of Pittsburgh.

Last updated: March 15, 2005