Break Out S2 (4): Li Shuangzhi (China) and Yang Zi (China)

Shuangzhi Li, Junior professor for German studies in Fudan University. He studied German language and literature in the Peking University and Freie University Berlin and finished his Phd program there. Further, he held a postdoctorate position in University Göttingen, before he started to work in Shanghai. His main interests lie in the modern and contemporary German literature studies and aesthetic theories. He published a German book and two Chinese books and works as a deligent translator as well. His translations include literary works and academic books like Hofmannsthals poems and “The structure of modern lyrics”.

Yang Zi, an acclaimed contemporary Chinese poet, is the author of a dozen books, including Border Fast Train (1994), Gray Eyes (2000), and Rouge (2007). After his university studies in Chinese literature, he lived in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for nine years and cofounded the literary journal Big Bird. In 1990, he was appointed Vice Alderman of Tahaqi Village. Since 1993, he has lived in the southern coastal city of Guangzhou and now works as the associate chief editor of the Nanfang People Weekly. Also known as a poetry translator, he has introduced the works of Osip Mandelshtam, Paul Celan, Fernando Pessoa, Gary Snyder, Charles Simic, and other Western poets to Chinese readers.