Opening - Avatar. Asia's Narrators

Ko Un

Classical Korean and Chinese poetry is an important reference point in the poetic works of Ko Un, who has been suggested as a Nobel Prize candidate a number of times. His main work, composed in the form of an epic cycle of poems, deals with his own experiences: the horrors of the Korean War, ten years as a Buddhist monk, resistance against the South Korean dictatorship, and threats on his life. He began working on the 20-volume Maninbo (Ten Thousand Lives) when he was under house arrest. This work, which resembles a scroll painting, sketches a panorama of figures from his life, mythology and recent history.

Yang Lian

In one of his great lyric works, a cycle of poems entitled Yi, Yang Lian takes up the Chinese epic I Ging, which is more than 4,000-years-old. The author, who was born in Beijing in 1955, published his first poems in an underground magazine after he had been forced to spend time being ‘re-educated’ in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. He spent years in exile, in which he contributed to the documenta X, among other things. He currently lives in London and serves as mediator between China and Europe. With reference the poem by the classical Chinese lyric poet Du Fu (712-770), Yang Lian will explain his relationship to China’s poetic tradition.

Moderation: Ilija Trojanow