I and Ai Qing

Author: Gao Ying
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Ai Qing, this "new poet who stepped onto the literary scene playing a colorful European lute," established his position in Chinese poetry with a single poem, "Dai Yanhe, My Nurse." However, the poet's life was not as passionate and poetic as his verses. Gao Ying, the wife who accompanied him through his later years, recalls in her memoir, "My Life with Ai Qing," the poet's nearly forty years of life experiences from the 1950s until his death, focusing on the hardships and misfortunes he faced in marriage and family. The book reveals the poet's genuine, sincere, and lovable side, while also exposing the love story between Gao Ying and Ai Qing, which was met with the world's indifference. This is the first time their story has been revealed. The book contains 286,000 words and is written entirely in a documentary style, describing Ai Qing with accuracy and simplicity through Gao Ying's eyes. The trivialities of daily life, though seemingly ordinary, reveal the true essence of human emotions, allowing readers to experience Gao Ying's sincere affection for Ai Qing. Numerous photographs are interspersed throughout, creating a vivid and lively visual experience. Though the text lacks excessive literary embellishments, its simplicity reveals profound emotions, and certain subtle details deeply touch the reader. In 1996, Ai Qing left this world without leaving behind a single memoir; ten years later, Gao Ying, his wife who "shared his hardships and remained by his side in spirit," completed this biography that is not a biography. The book consists of sixty-four "stories," the most detailed account of Ai Qing to date. It not only discloses many extremely private and little-known aspects of Ai Qing's life but also, for the first time, openly acknowledges his and Gao Ying's "shameful" and "maligned" love story, along with the truth behind it. Contemporary renowned poet He Jingzhi remarked: "This biography is simple, honest, intimate, moving, and highly compelling—it is an excellent work of documentary prose." Famous writer and theorist Zhai Taifeng said: "In this book, I have read a noble life, a pure love, a true sense of human dignity, and the pride and strength that a poet of an era brings to me."