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China and Inner Asia
Organized Panel Session
This paper will trace the Yi poetry movements in the 1980s. In 1985, a pioneer of modern Yi poetry, Jidi Majia, published the poem “Self-portrait” (zi hua xiang) in Poetry Journal（Shi kan). The poem proclaimed his Yi identity, “Ah world, let me provide an answer: I am a Nuosu!” In 1986, an unofficial literature journal, The Spirit of Eagle, was published by Southwest Nationalities Institute, and most of the authors took Jidi Majia as their model of modern Yi poetry, employing traditional Yi images in their poems. Later the Modern Yi poetry movement began, and was joined by several hundred Yi poets.
Examining modern Yi poems in 1980s , this paper explores three questions: First, under what historical circumstance did Yi poetry approach emerge as an instrument that helped formation of ethnic consciousness? Second, as the voice of Yi cultural elites, how were these poems composed to reflect and construct ethnic consciousness? The poets constructed an "imagined community” with the images that were concentrated from their cultural heritage and the local knowledge. Third, how was the poetic approach of ethnic consciousness implemented? Characteristic of their double identities as ethnic minority cultural elites and poets, these authors originally specialized in poetry activities, and later became involved in other non-poetry activities such as literary movements, organizations, and actions to foreground their ethnic experience and identity.
Jing Qiu
Guangdong polytechnic normal university of China, China (People's Republic)