Bei Dao

Bei Dao, meaning Northern Island, is the pen name of the Chinese-American writer Zhao Zhenkai, born in 1949. Among the most acclaimed Chinese-language poets of his generation, he is often regarded as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he has also written short fiction, essays and a memoir. Known as a dissident, he is a prominent representative of the school of poetry called Misty or Obscure Poetry in the West. He served in the Red Guards in his youth, was disillusioned by the Cultural Revolution, took part in the 1976 Tiananmen Incident and co-founded the banned literary journal Jintian (Today). He went into exile after the 1989 protests and became an American citizen in 2009.