Ginsberg’s China Experience and Its Influence on His Series of Poems on China

As a renowned poet and representative of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg was invited to be a member of the US Writers’ Delegation to visit China in 1984. His China trip as well as his reading of traditional Chinese literature constitute his China experience, which is represented in Ginsberg’s poetry. This essay examines Ginsberg’s series of poems on China. It first shows that Ginsberg’s introduction to the Beat Generation poets and their poetics provided the inspiration for his poetry writing. Then it discusses Ginsberg’s observation of Chinese society during his visit and his reading of the Chinese poet Bai Juyi. The essay concludes that during his visit, Ginsberg composed his poetry based on his communication with China and her people and that the selected poems of Bai Juyi are a direct influence on Ginsberg’s seven poems in “Reading Bai Juyi.”