The Changing Room

"Fireworks and Working Girls" Fireworks and working girlsThey've danced with abandonDescending into loneliness in the end Confucian moralists wouldn't agree: These explosions in the heavens are a natural thingWe watch as we please reflect as we pleaseAll has been illuminated corners once overlooked If my will could ascend to the skyI'd want to go to pieces tooIn the quest for love I'd dance a proud danceAnyone might surrender to lust beneath the moonEven the moon adores its own ecstasy If it were ableIt would light its own fuseEvery flowery bone of its bodyScattered to the winds The author of six volumes of poetry, Yongming Zhai first became prominent in the mid-1980s with the publication of her twenty-poem cycle, Woman, a work that forcefully articulated a female point-of-view in China's largely patriarchal society. Her powerful imagery and forthright voice resonated with many readers. Zhai has continued to hone her critique of traditional attitudes toward women, quickly becoming one of China's foremost feminist voices and a major force in the contemporary literary scene. She is also an installation artist and prolific essayist, and stages poetry readings and other cultural events at the bar she owns in her native Chengdu. Andrea Lingenfelter received her MA from Yale University. She is also the translator of the novels Candy (Back Bay Books, 2003), Farewell to My Concubine (W. Morrow, 1993), and The Last Princess of Manchuria (W. Morrow, 1992). She currently lives in Seattle.