Let Us Remember instead of Miseries: Poems and Chinese Diaspora

In 1953, Chiang Yee, a Chinese American travel writer and artist, began to write and exchange Chinese-language dayou poems with Yang Lien-sheng, a Harvard professor. These poems, seemingly casual, unrestrained, humorous, and sometimes emotional, reflected the sentiments of diaspora poets, their feelings about displacement, profession, language, and home. This article is a study of the cultural and literary significance of these dayou poems. Written during the Cold War era by Chinese scholars, they stand in sharp contrast with mainstream publications in both China and America. They are not merely an instance of Chinese poetic form being practiced overseas; when examined against their sociocultural context, these verses raise significant issues concerning displacement and homeland, career and cultural identity, and “mother tongue” and public expression. They reveal an ethos that diaspora poets have never publicly manifested in their English-language writings. Thus, a study of these dayou poems may deepen our understanding about Asian American literature, lead to a better appreciation of writing in languages other than English, and open up a new, exciting topic within Asian American Studies.