About the Book
At the height of his literary prowess, Xu Zhimo was the most famous living poet in all of China. With his round spectacles and aristocratic profile, Xu had a face that became as iconic as his poetry. During his short life, he claimed an illustrious place in the literary canon, redefining Chinese poetry and leading literature into the modern era. But while the brilliant and charismatic Xu may have seemed to live a charmed existence, he also faced near poverty, profound heartbreak, the opium addiction of his second wife, and a fiery death at age thirty-five. In this lyrical and engaging biography, Xu's story is poignantly told by his grandson, Tony Hsu.
Born in 1897, Xu came of age during the early twentieth century, a period when China was struggling to find its own identity-an era of nation building, violent political revolutions, and passionate cultural exchange with the West. In Chasing the Modern, we follow the odyssey of Xu, who at twenty-one, boards a ship from Shanghai to America, leaving behind his family-the dutiful and intelligent Zhang Youyi, the wife he had wed in an arranged marriage and their infant son-and his beloved homeland to pursue a Western education. In America, along with the other elite young men of his generation, he studies at Columbia University in New York. Shifting allegiances and crossing the Atlantic to continue his education in England, Xu then joins the avant-garde philosophers and writers at the storied King's College, Cambridge University, and socializes with the London literati, exchanging ideas, bons mots and champagne toasts with the Bloomsbury Group.
It is at Cambridge that Xu experiences an awakening-to literature, to love, and to life itself-ultimately choosing to devote himself to poetry, pursuing the first divorce in Chinese history, and chasing an eternal love with the entrancing, intelligent women he believes embody modern ideals, among them Lin Huiyin, who would ultimately rise as China's first female architect, and Lu Xiaoman, a lauded opera singer, painter and author. Returning to China after four years abroad, Xu rises to national fame, first as the interpreter for Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, then as a visionary poet, and finally, and perhaps most importantly, as a symbol of early twentieth century China. A man who defined his era, Xu made choices in life and love that surprised and sometimes shocked a nation that was watching-and following-his every move.
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/POETXUZHIMO/
WEBSITE: chasingthemodern.com/
About the Author :
Tony S. Hsu is the grandson of Xu Zhimo. He was born in Shanghai shortly after the end of World War II. As a toddler, Hsu and his sisters were raised by his grandmother, Zhang Youyi, while his parents pursued their studies in America. In the late 1940s, Zhang and her young charges left China amidst national political turmoil and settled in Hong Kong. At age six, Hsu and his sisters emigrated to New York to join their parents and began a new life in America. Hsu ultimately received his BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Michigan and a Ph.D in Applied Physics from Yale University. He has been an executive for several technology companies. Hsu lives with his fashion designer wife, Lily Pao Hsu. Their filmmaker daughter, Alexandra lives in San Francisco, California. Chasing the Modern is his first book.
Review :
"In Chasing the Modern, Tony Hsu has gifted us with a graceful and yet unsparing peephole into the life of Xu Zhimo, whose pristine poetry was drawn from an unexpectedly short and turbulent life. This is the best sort of biography; one with all the drive, tension, and unflinching honesty of a first-rate historical novel. That Xu's story happens to be true makes it all the more remarkable." -Jennifer Cody Epstein, author of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment
"A captivating page-turner that sheds light on the intimate thoughts and tumultuous life of Xu Zhimo, one of China's most important twentieth-century poets. In Tony Hsu's exploration of his grandfather's life, we see the backdrop of China's momentous march toward modernity come to life-as well as a vivid portrait of a man who lived, loved, and wrote memorably." -Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of Sarong Party Girls and A Tiger in the Kitchen
"The richness and beauty of Xu Zhimo's poems are deepened for us by this new biography by Tony Hsu. In a labor of love, Hsu has visited the sites of the poet's travels and sojourns and amassed an imposing amount of information from biographies, diaries, letters, memoirs and interviews. In addition to the nuanced portrait of Zhimo himself, his grandson treats with sympathetic understanding the three women who shared in the poet's search for love." -Cyril Birch, professor emeritus at UC Berkeley
"It is the moment to commemorate all the milestones of great Chinese poetry in the twentieth century so as to raise our awareness of how meaningful the role of poetry is in the new era of globalization. With this aim in mind, Xu Zhimo and Tony Hsu prove the continuity of Chinese poetry, or simply, poetry, to us. Chasing the Modern is wonderful and substantial." -Yang Lian, poet and author of Where the Sea Stands Still
"Chasing the Modern offers extraordinary insights into the life of a genius-one whose far too brief existence in this world was marked by both an infectious joie de vivre and a dark tragedy, qualities reflected in his timeless poems. In turn, Tony Hsu has drawn a complex portrait of this tormented legendary Chinese poet. A brilliant tribute!" -Ben Wang, co-chair of the Renwen Society, New York
"In this absorbing, elegant biography of his grandfather, Tony Hsu has given us much more than the story of one of China's most important early twentieth-century poets; he has also opened a rare window into the ways in which art and literature led China out of feudalism and into the modern world. As Xu Zhimo's poetry pushed past the boundaries of his era, so did his struggle to live and love as a modern man-giving this book a level of novelistic power not often found in even the most rewarding works of history." -Nicole Mones, author of Night in Shanghai and The Last Chinese Chef
