6TH EDITION ★ 28 FEBRUARY - 30 MARCH 2025
★ GHENT ★
Ling Yu's Poetry
Dochters (Daughters), published by Poëziecentrum Gent, is an anthology of Ling Yu's entire work, in which the position of women plays a prominent role. She thoughtfully examines what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal society. In addition, Ling Yu writes a lot about tradition, mythology, the passing of time, landscapes and train travel. In a sometimes narrative and sometimes sparse, almost minimalist style, she alternates memories with more philosophical reflections.
Like the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zi, Ling Yu loves contrasts and paradoxes. Light is constantly opposed to dark, day to night, freedom to captivity, the hermit to society, rocks to water: “I want to dream but without sleeping / I want to walk but without feet”.
Translator Silvia Marijnissen will present the work of Ling Yu in conversation with literary jack-of-all-trades Robin van der Plaetsen and musician Jun (Yi Huijun) interpretes Ling Yu’s poems on Guzheng, a classical Chinese instrument.
KANTL
Thursday 20 March
20:00
In Dutch
Tickets on sale: Monday 3 February
€ 10 / € 8 (students) / UiTPAS
Who's Who
Ling Yu
Ling Yu (Taipei, 1952) has received several major awards and has been a guest at several international poetry festivals, including one in Rotterdam in 2004. Her work has been translated into several languages, including English, French and German. Her latest collection 'Daughters', for which she received the prestigious Taiwanese Literature Prize in 2022, sold over 2000 copies in Taiwan.
Silvia Marijnissen
Silvia Marijnissen (°1970) is a translator of Chinese literature. She has translated novels by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan and Eileen Chang, modern poetry by many poets from China and Taiwan, and classical landscape poetry. Together with Anne Sytske Keijser and Mark Leenhouts, she translated the 18th-century classic The Dream of the Red Room, for which they received the Filter Translation Prize.
Jun (Yi Huijun)
Jun is a Brussels-based musician, singer, and artist originally from Hunan Province, a region in central-southern China with a rich tradition of folk music. She developed a passion for singing at a young age and, when first exposed to music, chose the guzheng (Chinese zither) as her instrument of choice, drawn to its delicate tones and the expressive potential it offered.
Immersed in Chinese folk and pop music throughout her upbringing, Jun's curiosity about global sounds led her to explore a wide variety of musical styles. After a brief visit to Los Angeles, destiny eventually brought her to Brussels, where she delved into jazz and improvised music, which sparked her ongoing study and research.
Her unique musical voice began to emerge as she synthesized these diverse influences, drawing on her early foundations in guzheng. The instrument's rich, resonant strings continue to inform her work, blending with her delicate, flowing melodies and poetic lyrics. Through experimental improvisation and the integration of jazz and electronic music, Jun creates an avant-garde sound that bridges East and West, tradition and innovation.
Robin Van der Plaetsen
Robin Van der Plaetsen is a literary interviewer, focussing mostly but not solely on fiction. Stemming from his job as a bookseller at bookshop Walry in Ghent (Belgium), his love for books knows no bounds. He is both an avid reader and writer. Known to deliver in - depth interviews Van der Plaetsen interviewed several renowned Dutch - speaking writers such as Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Tom Lanoye, and Lara Taveirne.