Bei Dao, pen name of Zhao Zhenkai which means ‘northisland’, was born in Beijing in 1949. Hailed as ‘the soul of post-Mao poetry’(Yunte Huang) and praised for his ‘intense lyricism’ (Pankaj Mishra), Bei Daois one of contemporary China’s most distinguished poets and the cofounder ofthe landmark underground literary journal Jintian (Today). He hasreceived numerous international awards for his work, including the Cikada Prizein Sweden, the Golden Wreath Award in Macedonia, the Aragana Poetry Prize inMorocco, the Jeanette Schocken Literary Prize in Germany, the PEN/BarbaraGoldsmith Freedom to Write Award, and the 2nd Yakamochi Medal in Japan; he isalso an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 2007he has been the Professor of Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong,and currently resides between Hong Kong and Beijing. He acquired U.S.citizenship in 2009. Carcanet publishes eight of his books, most recently hisautobiography City Gate, Open Up. Bei Dao’s poetry has been translatedinto over thirty languages.