About this item

This is the first English translation of the verse by the forgotten Shanghai poet Shao Xunmei (1906-1968) . As a student at Cambridge, young Shao fell under the spell of poets like Gautier, Baudelaire and Verlaine, but above all the Englishman A. C. Swinburne. Back in Shanghai, Shao led a group of Western-influenced writers and artists who wanted to create a new culture for their country. Shao not only combined East and West in his life and art, but also turned his life into his art and vice-versa. Shao Xunmei was the epitome of a movement in 1930s Shanghai that aimed to reinvigorate the rest of China with a new culture derived from the energies of the European decadence. After the communists seized power, he had to work as a translator, and died during the Cultural Revolution.