Misty Poets

The Misty Poets are a group of 20th century Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution. They are so named because their work has been officially denounced as "obscure", "misty", or "hazy" poetry (menglong shi). The movement was initially centered on the magazine Jintian, which was published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned.

Guo Lusheng is among the earliest poets of the zhiqing generation poets and was an inspiration for several of the original Misty Poets. Four important misty poets, Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian, were exiled after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Other Misty Poets like Mang Ke and Shu Ting remain in China. Jintian was resurrected in Sweden in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers.

The work of the Misty Poets has had a strong influence on the lyrics of China's first generation of rock musicians, particularly Cui Jian.

List of Misty Poets

 * Bei Dao
 * Mang Ke
 * Chou Ping
 * Xi Chuan
 * Zhang Zhen
 * Tang Yaping
 * Fei Ye
 * Bei Ling
 * Ha Jin
 * Gu Cheng
 * Shu Ting
 * Duo Duo
 * Jiang He
 * Yang Lian