Leiden University Libraries Digital Collections

The two volumes of The New Poetry Tide Poetry Collection were edited by Lao Mu. Published semi-officially in 1985 by the May Fourth Literary Society at Beijing University, the first volume contains works by Today (今天) poets and other authors of Obscure poetry (Bei Dao, Mang Ke, Jiang He, Shu Ting, Gu Cheng, Yang Lian, Shizhi / Guo Lusheng, Duoduo, etc), but the second volume features avant-garde works by then-newcomer poets from all parts of China (Zhang Zao, Zhai Yongming, Ouyang Jianghe, Bai Hua, Liao Yiwu, Song Qu, Song Wei, Shi Guanghua, etc). As such, the anthology was a groundbreaking effort, as the first extensive, survey-like compilation of an avant-garde poetry whose scope had by now decisively exceeded and transcended that of the first generation of poets to emerge after the Cultural Revolution. Lao Mu’s anthology remains a milestone publication in Chinese literary history. (In the early pages of the second volume, a number of pages were accidentally printed twice.)