How does contemporary Chinese poetry compare to the 1980s with people like Bei Dao and Yang Lian?
Kubin: That is hard to compare. But I think that the poets from both the 1980’s and 1990’s are excellent. They have their own visions, they have their own language, etc. Personally, I obviously like Bei Dao and that group of people. But I am older and I should consider the younger readers. Those younger readers are likely to prefer the 1990’s poets such as Wang Jiaxin, Ouyang Jianghe, Zhai Yongming and so on. DW: The Chinese Writers Association has a project now to select 100 Chinese works and translate them into foreign languages so that Chinese literature can go out into the world. What do you think about this plan? Is it meaningful? Kubin: This may mean something in the United States, but it is meaningless in Germany. Basically, we have already translated the Chinese literary works into German. All Chinese writers of any era already has German editions of their works. We do not need that help. But it is a problem in the United States where the need exists because they have done fewe
