Yan Li (; 1954–2026) was a Chinese poet, painter, journal editor, and cultural organizer. He was a member of the Stars Art Group, a contemporary Chinese art collective. He was a representative figure of the Misty Poets movement and a member of the literary circle centered on the unofficial journal Jintian (Today). In 1984, he held one of the earliest post-1949 solo exhibitions of avant-garde art in mainland China, at the People's Park Exhibition Hall in Shanghai. Yan worked across poetry, painting, and fiction, treating them as distinct but related forms of expression.

After moving to New York City in 1985, Yan founded the Chinese-language poetry and art journal First Line (, ) in 1987 and served as its first editor-in-chief. The journal was a platform for contemporary Chinese poetry, translations of American poetry, and visual art, connecting literary and artistic circles in China and abroad. After its original print and online runs ended in the early 2000s, the journal was revived on WeChat in 2018 and returned to print in New York as First Line New York in 2020. From 2009 to 2015, he co-organized the Beijing Mid-Autumn International Poetry Festival at the China Millennium Monument, which featured poets from more than a dozen countries. Beginning in 2018, he served as co-chair of the Flushing Poetry Festival in New York and organized poetry readings and international literary exchanges. Yan published poetry, fiction, essays, and art catalogues, and exhibited his work in Asia, North America, and Europe. His visual works are held in museum collections including the Shanghai Art Museum, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, and the Long Museum.

Early life and artistic beginnings

Yan was born in Beijing in 1954. He began writing poetry in 1973 and became involved with the unofficial literary journal Jintian (Today) in 1978. The following year, he began painting and joined the Stars Art Group. Yan participated in the inaugural Stars Art Exhibition in 1979, first held outside the National Art Museum of China and later shown at Huafangzhai in Beihai Park. He also participated in the group's second exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 1980. In 1984, Yan held one of the earliest solo exhibitions of avant-garde art in mainland China after 1949 at the People's Park Exhibition Hall in Shanghai.

New York and First Line

In 1985, Yan moved from Beijing to New York to study abroad at his own expense. In May 1987, he founded the Chinese-language poetry and art journal First Line (, ) and served as its editor-in-chief. The journal featured contemporary Chinese poetry, translations of American poetry, and visual art, and circulated within independent poetry circles in China. Through the journal, Yan played a role in internationalizing the Chinese poetry scene.

Beginning in the 1990s, Yan divided his time between China and the United States, later living and working between Shanghai and New York. After twenty-five issues, First Line ended its original print run in 2000 and continued online until 2003. Yan revived the journal on WeChat in 2018. In July 2020, it returned to print in New York under the title First Line New York.

Literary career

Although Yan was associated with Misty Poetry, his poetry has also been described as displaying features characteristic of the transition to Third Generation poetry. His poetry often approached philosophical and social questions with lightness and irony, using brief images, comparisons, and shifts of perspective. English translations of his poems appeared in literary journals including Modern Poetry in Translation, Tupelo Quarterly, and Queen's Quarterly. His 1986 poem "Give It Back to Me" () became one of his best-known works.

In his later work, Yan developed the series Poetry Chewing Gum (). The short, epigrammatic poems used humor and irony to address everyday life, consumer culture, and globalization. The series received the Qinling Literature Prize in 2011.

His later poetry collections included The Moon Within the Body () and Sorrow Should Have Grown Up by Now (), both published in 2016.

Yan also published fiction and prose. His fiction included New York Is Not Heaven (, 1993), Sleeping with New York (, 1993), and The Highest Funeral (, 1998). A selection of his fiction was published as Selected Fiction of Yan Li () in 2024.

Visual art

Yan treated poetry, painting, and fiction as distinct but related forms, choosing among them according to the subject. His visual practice centered on painting, mixed-media works, and works on paper; it also included photography. Some of his visual works were closely connected to poems or poetic ideas. His recurring series included Record, Patching, Brick, and Fire, among others. He began the Record series in New York in 1987, incorporating discarded vinyl records into paintings and mixed-media works; a 1991 feature in The New York Times reproduced a photograph of Yan with works from the series.

Soon after arriving in New York, Yan held a solo exhibition at Sabrina Fung Gallery in 1985. A 1986 review in The New York Times reproduced his painting Growing From Young Plant (1984) as the article's sole illustration. In 1987, his work was shown at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University and at Sarah Lawrence College; a review of the latter exhibition in The New York Times reproduced his work Record. His work was also included in the Stars Art Group's tenth-anniversary touring exhibitions in Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, and Dunkirk in 1989. In 1993, he held a solo exhibition of photography in Beijing.

His early work was included in later historical exhibitions, including the Stars Art Group retrospective Origin Point at Today Art Museum in 2007 and Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974–1985 at China Institute Gallery in 2011. A 2018 retrospective at the Lingang Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai surveyed his work from 1978 to 2018. In 2019, his work was included in Symbiosis: The Intertextuality of Art and Poetry at OCAT Shenzhen. His work is held in the collections of the Shanghai Art Museum, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, and the Long Museum.

Cultural organizing and international activities

In 1996, Yan participated in the international symposium Breaking the Barriers: Chinese Literature Facing the World in Sweden. The symposium proceedings, published by the Olof Palme International Center, included his contribution "Illusionary Space Writing." From 2009 to 2015, he co-organized the Beijing Mid-Autumn International Poetry Festival at the China Millennium Monument, which featured poets from more than a dozen countries. Beginning in 2018, he served as co-chair of the Flushing Poetry Festival. In June 2018, he was elected president of the PEN Chinese Writers Abroad Centre (CWAC), a New York-based center of PEN International. He also took part in international literary programs and festivals, including the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa and the Struga Poetry Evenings. His literary activities in New York included readings at Columbia University and The Poetry Project.

Death Yan died in New York City on 24 June 2026 following an illness.

Selected publications

Poetry

Yan, Li (1993). Poet's Life. Seattle: Poetry Around Press. Yan, Li (1993). Maker of Dusk (《黄昏制造者》) (in Chinese). Nanjing: Nanjing University Press. .

Yan, Li (1999). Rotating Polyhedral Mirror (《多面镜旋转体》) (in Chinese). Xining: Qinghai People's Publishing House. . Yan, Li (n.d.). Poetry Possibility (《诗歌的可能性》) (in Chinese and English). Brooklyn, New York: First Line. .

Fiction and prose

Yan, Li (1993). Sleeping with New York (《與紐約共枕》) (in Traditional Chinese). Taipei: Linking Publishing Company. .

Art books and catalogues Yan, Li (2000). Patching Begins with New Millennium and Myself (《從我開始修補的新世紀》) (in Chinese and English). New York. Presented by U.S. Digest Magazine; printed by Expedi Printing Inc.

Yan, Li (2018). Contemporary Poetic: My 40 Years: Works of Yan Li (《诗意当代：我与我的40年——严力绘画个展》) (in Chinese and English). Exhibition catalogue. Shanghai: Lingang Contemporary Art Museum.

Selected exhibitions 1979–1980 – The first and second Stars Art Exhibitions, held outside the National Art Museum of China and at Huafangzhai in Beihai Park in 1979, and at the National Art Museum of China in 1980, Beijing. 1984 – Solo exhibition, People's Park Exhibition Hall, Shanghai. 1985 – Solo exhibition, Sabrina Fung Gallery, New York. 1986 – Avant-Garde Chinese Art: Beijing/New York, City Gallery, New York, and Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York. 1987 – Group exhibitions at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. 1989 – The Stars: Ten Years, touring exhibition in Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, and Dunkirk. 2007 – Origin Point—“Star Group” Retrospective Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing. 2011 – Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974–1985, China Institute Gallery, New York. 2017 – Salon, Salon: A Profile of Modern Art Practices from a Beijing Perspective, 1972–1982, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing. 2018 – Contemporary Poetic: My 40 Years: Works of Yan Li, Lingang Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai. 2019 – Symbiosis: The Intertextuality of Art and Poetry, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen. 2019–2020 – Stars 1979, OCAT Institute, Beijing.

Awards and honors 2005 – 2004 China Annual Best Poetry Award from Selected Poetry. 2011 – Qinling Literature Prize for the Poetry Chewing Gum series. 2019 – New York City Council proclamation honoring his service and contributions to Flushing, Queens, and New York City. 2019 – Lifetime Achievement Award marking the thirtieth anniversary of Poetry Reference. 2022 – First prize in the poetry category of the Overseas Chinese Writing Award for 100 Poems by Yan Li.

References

External links

First Line New York Yan Li at the International Writing Program Interview with Yan Li at the MCLC Resource Center Interview with Yan Li at the University of Vienna