Zhang Ziqing (Feb. 2, 1939 - Dec. 10, 2024)

James Sherry, Zhang, and me, at my W. 92nd Street apartment in NY (1994)
Zhang Ziqing (Feb. 2, 1939 - Dec. 10, 2024).

I've just heard that my friend of near 35 years, Zhang Ziqing, has died in China, where he was the leading scholar of 20th Century American poetry. I first was in touch with him when as the editor and translator, with Yunte Huang, of Selected Language Poems (P.R. China: Sichuan Art and Literature Publishing House, 1993), which included work of James Sherry, Hank Lazer, and me. Zhang's questions about my poems were so remarkable and detailed that they lead me to write "A Test of Poetry." I saw Zhang on several trips to China for CAAP (the association for Chinese/American poetry exchanges founded by Marjorie Perloff, Nie Zhenzhao, Lianggong Luo, and me). About a decade ago he published an encyclopedic account of American poetry, more detailed in its contemporary coverage than anything published in the US: History of 20th Century American Poetry, (Nankai University Press, Tianjin: 2018). His association with Allen Ginsberg is documented here

Thanks to Yi Feng for letting me know. She notes about Zhang's History of US Poetry: The great collection has 275 poets and 30 schools of poetry included and 2077 pages! Here is my review of this great book by Prof Zhang In Chinese.  (quite easy to read in AI translation).
 
Zhang and me, 2009, CAAP in Wuhan
 
 Zhang, Susan Bee, and me, 2009, CAAP in Wuhan
 
[first posted in on Facebook on Dec. 12.]