Chasing the Modern

Xu Zhimo was once China's most widely recognized living poet, known as much for his round glasses and fine features as for the verse that shaped modern Chinese literature. Though he died young, at thirty-five, he left a lasting mark on the country's literary canon. This biography is written by his grandson, Tony Hsu, who traces a life marked by financial strain, personal grief, and the opium addiction of his second wife, alongside his public triumphs.

Xu was born in 1897 and grew up as China searched for a new national identity amid political upheaval, nation building, and growing contact with Western ideas. At twenty-one he left Shanghai for America, separating from his family, including his dutiful, educated wife Zhang Youyi, whom he had married through an arranged match, and their infant son. He studied at Columbia University before continuing in England at King's College, Cambridge, where he mixed with philosophers, writers, and the Bloomsbury Group in London.

At Cambridge Xu committed himself to poetry and pursued a series of relationships with women he saw as embodying modern ideals. Among them were Lin Huiyin, later China's first female architect, and Lu Xiaoman, a celebrated opera singer, painter, and writer. His choices in love, including seeking what would become China's first divorce, startled a public that followed his every move.

After four years abroad Xu returned home and rose to national fame, first as an interpreter for the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and then as a visionary poet. The book presents him as a figure who came to symbolize his era.