Yao Jingming (Chinese: 姚京明; pinyin: Yáo Jīng Míng; Wade–Giles: Yao2 Ching1 Ming2; born 1958), better known by the pen name Yao Feng (traditional Chinese: 姚風; simplified Chinese: 姚风; pinyin: Yáo Fēng; Wade–Giles: Yao2 Feng1), is a Chinese poet, translator, photographer, artist and professor emeritus. He is formerly the director of Portuguese at the University of Macau. Yao is the founder and editor-in-chief of the poetry magazine Chinese and Western Poetry. He has published over 20 books in Portuguese and Chinese, and is also notable as a translator of the poetry of Eugénio de Andrade, Fernando Pessoa, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Miguel Torga, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Florbela Espanca and Nuno Júdice, among others.
Yao also served as a diplomat for the Chinese government and later as a deputy director of the , an organ of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture within the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region.
Biography
Early life and education Yao was born in Beijing in 1958; his parents were factory workers. As a primary school student during the Cultural Revolution, Yao was a Little Red Guard. In 1969, he was selected as one of five or six students to study Spanish at Beijing Foreign Studies University, the first batch of students to be able to do so. He later recalled the first sentence he learnt to say was '¡Viva el presidente Mao!' ['Long live Chairman Mao!']. Yao's first poem in Spanish was entitled 'I Met Marilyn Monroe in China'. Working as an assistant to the school librarian, he discovered Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) which made an indelible impression on him. At the age of 18, he was sent away to perform agricultural labour with his classmates as part of the Down to the Countryside Movement. He has referenced Jiang Wen's coming-of-age film In the Heat of the Sun (1994) as particularly accurate to his experience during this period.
Career In 1976, Yao enrolled as an undergraduate at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), studying Portugeuse. Around this time, Yao began writing limericks. Upon these poems coming to the attention of an academic, he was tasked with translating Portugeuse poetry at the BFSU's Southern European Studio. There he worked alongside notable translators Liu Mingjiu and Guo Hong'an. He graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree. He was subsequently assigned to research Portuguese literature at BFSU's National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, where he worked until 1986.
Yao was seconded to the Chinese embassy in Lisbon as a translator in 1988. There, he befriended Portugeuse poets, namely Maria Ondina Braga and Eugénio de Andrade, who encouraged him to publish his first poetry anthology, Written on the Wings of the Wind (1990). He did so under the pen name Yao Feng, which has the homophonic meaning of 'distant wind'.
In 1992, Yao began a two year contract teaching at the University of Macau, receiving a master's degree in Portugeuse literature during this time. He went on to attain his doctorate in comparative literature from Fudan University in Shanghai. His thesis dealt with the representation of China in Portugeuse poetry. In 1994, Yao and the academic Lin Baona commenced the 27-volume Portuguese-Language Writers Series, publishing renowned contemporary Portugeuse writers in Chinese.
Yao founded the academic journal Chinese and Western Poetry in 2002. In honour of its 10 year anniversary, a series of symposia were organised by the , and Zhuhai Writers Association, moderated by Yao. Among the participants was the literary critic and poets , and Yan Ai-lin. During the discussions, Ezra Pound was mentioned as having significantly advanced Western interest in Chinese classical poetry.
In 2012, he later served as deputy director of the , resigning the position in 2014. The following year, Yao was a writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa, as part of the institutions International Writing Program. In 2016, Yao was appointed Director of Portugeuse at the University of Macau, the first Chinese academic to be so named. As a critic of Portugeuse literature, Yao has written on Pessoa, Fernão Mendes Pinto, Luís de Camões, Eça de Queirós and Camilo Pessanha. In 2024, he left the University of Macau, being named a professor emeritus.
Other activities Yao has been described by artist Lin Jiangquan as a 'polymath', being an artist, photographer and curator besides his work as an academic and poet. Around 1999, he also had a small role in the television series Smoke Dragon playing a Chinese neurologist who falls in love with a Portuguese girl in Macau.
Personal life Yao taught Mandarin to his friend and colleague José Luís Peixoto. Yao sometimes uses other pen names, including Hei Zhongming or Sibyl.
Select bibliography +Portugeuse-language publicationsYearTitleTitle in EnglishPublisherPagesNote1990Nas asas do vento cego Written on the WindÁtrio662001A noite deita-se comigoThe Night Lies Down with MePedra Formosa Cultural Association89As Yao Jingming.A poesia clássica Chinesa: uma leitura de traduçōes PortuguesasClassical Chinese Poetry: A Reading of Portuguese TranslationsUniversity of Macau Press632004Fragmentos: olhar de Henrique Senna FernandesFragments: A Look at Henrique Senna FernandesJorge Álvares Foundation / Macau International Institute117As Yao Jingming; co-authored with Lúcia Lemos.2007Um barco remenda o mar: dez poetas Chineses contemporâneosA Boat Mends the Sea: Ten Contemporary Chinese PoetsMartins Fontes166As co-editor with Régis Bonvicino.2015Palavras cansadas da gramáticaWords Tired of GrammarGradiva204Poetry and photography.2021 O além da montanhaBeyond the MountainEditora Moinhos128Poetry, prose and photography originally published in Ponto Final's literary supplement, Parágrafo.Contos de fantasia ChinesesChinese Fantasy Stories400As editor; written by Pu Songling; translated by Ana Cardoso, Zhang Mengyao, Chen Qu, Xiong Xueying, Lou Zhichang and Zhou Qian.2025O encontro dos extremos: intercâmbio literário entre a China e PortugalThe Meeting of Extremes: Literary Exchange Between China and PortugalGradiva496 +Chinese-language publicationsYearTitleTitle in EnglishPublisherPagesNote1997《一條地平綫，兩種風景》One Horizon Line, Two ViewsMacau Official Printing Bureau221Co-authored with Jorge Arrimar.2007《當魚閉上眼睛》When Fish Close Their EyesAssociation of Stories of Macao109Co-authored with Christopher Kelen.2011《絕句》In BriefHong Kong University Press45Chapbook; in Chinese and English. As part of the Words and the World series.2014《中外文學交流史—中葡卷》History of Sino-Foreign Literary Exchanges: China-Portugal VolumeShandong Education Press294As part of the National Key Publication Project; Portugeuse edition translated by Ana Cristina Alves and published by Gradiva in 2025.《枯枝上的敵人》Enemies on the DeadwoodWriters Publishing House2472015《我從你開始:——姚風讀詩》I Begin With You: Yao Feng Reads PoetryMacao Daily Press243《龍鬚糖萬歲》Long Live Dragon Beard CandyWriters Publishing House403《大海上的檸檬》Lemons in the SeaZhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House1122022《深海點燈》Lighting Up the Deep SeaShowway Publishing Company316
Honours and awards
2005: Yao won the 14th annual Rougang Poetry Prize, China's oldest prize for poetry. 2006: Yao was appointed to the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, with the rank of Officer, by Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal. 2013: Yao was awarded the 2nd Cross-Strait Poet Laureate Prize. Additionally, Yao has been awarded the Changyao Poetry Award and the Macau Literary Award.
References
Criticism and further reading
External links
黃昏的收藏者 / Collector of Dusk – a collection of Yao's poetry in Chinese with English translations by Christopher Kelen, Agnes Wong, Jenny Lao and Hilda Tam. Originally published by Association of Stories of Macao.