A Study on the Mythic Images of Li Yan’s Chinese-English Poetry in <i>Brushstrokes</i>

WANG Ling; XIAO Chunduan

doi:10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258309

Volume 8 Issue 3

Oct. 2025

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WANG Ling, XIAO Chunduan. A Study on the Mythic Images of Li Yan’s Chinese-English Poetry in Brushstrokes[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2025, 8(3): 150-168. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258309

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WANG Ling, XIAO Chunduan. A Study on the Mythic Images of Li Yan’s Chinese-English Poetry in Brushstrokes[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2025, 8(3): 150-168. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258309

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A Study on the Mythic Images of Li Yan’s Chinese-English Poetry in Brushstrokes

doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20258309

Jinan University

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Author Bio:
WANG Ling is a postgraduate student at the College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. Her main research interests lie in the field of Anglo-American literature.

XIAO Chunduan is Professor at the College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. Her research focuses on the fields of British Chinese literature, overseas Chinese poetics and ethnic literature.
Received Date: 2025-02-28
Accepted Date: 2025-04-25

Abstract

Abstract

Mythic images are the unique Chinese cultural codes in the British Chinese, Li Yan’s Chinese-English poetry. This article mainly analyzes three typical Chinese mythic images in Li’s works published in Brushstrokes, a British Chinese bilingual literary magazine, i.e. the crow, the fish, and the dragoness. The essay elucidates their multi-cultural, social and historical implications, revealing the correlation between the poet’s creation of bilingual poetry, and British Chinese’ diasporic dilemma. It argues that, through these prehistoric Chinese mythic images, Li’s bilingual poetry records the diasporic state of silence, survival, and self-salvation of the British Chinese, and unmasks their past of being marginalized and discriminated as well as their diasporic life. Drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese myths, the article shows the poet’s identification with and active inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and proves that traditional Chinese culture provides ideological guidance for overseas Chinese’s self-positioning in the diasporic dilemma. Meanwhile, by writing prehistoric Chinese mythic images into his bilingual poetry, not only does Li enrich the content and form of British Chinese diaspora poetry, but he also expresses contemporary British Chinese’s strong desire for the promotion of traditional Chinese culture overseas.
- Li Yan,
- mythic image,
- Brushstrokes,
- British Chinese poetry,
- diasporic dilemma

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References(33)

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