Man on the spot …

… The poetry of Bei Dao and the paradox of Hong Kong. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

Dao was all of twenty-seven during the peaceful April Fifth Democracy Movement that unfolded in front of Tiananmen Square, in 1976. Reacting to the sponsored beliefs and belief-systems that were being unfurled at the time, Dao wrote a poem, “The Answer”, which spread like an underground fire in popular imagination. A quote from it:

Let me tell you, world,I—do—not—believe!If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet,Count me as number thousand and one.