Dissidence and Accommodation: The Publishing History of Yang Lian from Today to Today

The career of the poet Yang Lian provides a case study of the tension between dissidence and accommodation in PRC literary publishing over the past quarter of a century. In the 1980s, Yang published unofficially and officially, attempting to maintain his dissident independence while also taking advantage of the accommodations available within official culture. In 1989, the accommodation that Yang had reached with official culture collapsed. Since 1989, Yang has been promoted outside China as a dissident. Inside China, Yang's work has been adapted to the demands of censorship. This study shows that accommodations with China's official publishing system have been important to the careers of writers like Yang throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It also suggests that dissidence has played an important role in the achievement of such accommodations. The findings of this case study are pertinent to the situation of many artists and writers in the PRC today.