The Poetry Performance of Yan Jun as a Physical Expression – Poetry off the Page on Stage

by SARKA MASAROVA

This text explores the concept of physical poetry by Vasa to present a case study on an experimental Chinese poet YAN Jun 颜峻’s poetry performance at the Aranya Poetry Festival (APF) in Jinshanling, China on 1 Oct, 2023,^[1] which lasted for 39:36 minutes. Yan Jun is a phenomenal multi-talented and unique artist based in Beijing, People’s Republic of China (PRC) with original stage performance whose creative works range from poetry, poetry performance, performance art and sound art experiments. 

The concept of  physical poetry (fyzické básnictví)^[2] by Petr Vasa (Petr Váša in Czech)^[3], which he developed in his eponymous monograph The Physical Poetry (Fyzické básnictví in Czech original), integrates visuality (vizualita), verbality (verbalita), audiality (audialita) and mobility (mobilita) on stage.^[4] Vasa’s concept of physical poetry works with artistic synaesthesia and its specific forms, which refer to the (no)limits of a particular language. This text introduces Vasa’s concept of physical poetry for the first time in the context of Chinese poetry performance. In its modest attempt it has the potential to generate further ideas for the elaboration of this topic. 

In terms of verbality, Vasa’s physical poetry can work with any existing language and mixed languages (in Vasa’s case mostly Czech, Latin and English) and their audial, visual and verbal peculiarities. On the other hand, a physical poet can also work with a non-existent, invented language or with certain invented words.

Regarding audiality of physical poetry, it is possible to incorporate selected semi-sung parts of verbal texts, and to use all possible types of vocal placement, from deep tones to howling high-pitched tones; among others, also whispering, screaming, speaking out syllables with no meaning aloud, whistling, clicking the tongue; a physical poet also incorporates clapping hands, snapping fingers, beating one’s belly and chest, thighs, stamping. 

Vasa’s physical poetry works with the visuality of certain words, their formal and semantic aspects are performed by a physical poet on stage. Certain words or letters can thus performed by a physical poet’s body to transform the basic unit of a word into the basic unit of an action, which Vasa also referred to as “the language of an image” and “the image of a language”. ^[5]

According to Vasa, physical poetry mixes language(s) with abstract sounds and mobility on-stage. A physical poet can initiate various activities with objects that happen to be on stage or in the venue.^[6]  

Vasa has pointed out that once the audience joins a physical poetry performance, the physical poet responses creatively, but it is not the main aim of the performance for the audience to join the artist.^[7]   

All aspects of Vasa’s concept of physical poetry can be traced in Yan’s APF performance in his unique way of stage presence. He also incorporated interactive dialogue with the audience, who became an integral part of the performance at APF. The venue for Yan’s poetry performance at APF was an amphitheatre. There were stones stacked in a framed space as decoration at the back of the stage, and two microphones on the stage. Examples of all four aspects of Vasa’s physical poetry concept from Yan’s APF performance follow below in the text.

Verbality – Use of made-up language

At one moment, Yan started to make sound by touching the microphone with one of little papers with poems. Then he pulled the paper over it in different directions and tore the little piece of paper. After that Yan made semi-melodic sounds like yodelling, then it turned into sounds which resembled urgently calling on someone in a made-up language. He imitated communication between two people. After that followed Yan’s shouting which changed into throat singing as a form of communicating one’s feelings. 

Audiality – Audial and semantic aspects of selected words  

After reading aloud some poems Yan repeatedly blew some air from his mouth at the microphone to produce sound that became a part of the reading, an audio reaction to one of the poems, since one of the lines in one the poems contained a verb “to blow away”, “Blow away the whole world”. He repeatedly blew some air from his mouth at the microphone to produce sound similar to wind, like wheezing and squeaking.  

Visuality – Performance of semantic aspects of particular words 

Yan took a megaphone on stage and read some poems on small pieces of paper to the audience. After reading the lines – “crossing the grass”, “it is important that we are together” Yan went closer to the audience and walked around their rows of seats and continued reading his poems on little pieces of paper and achieved what Vasa described as “the image of a language” to approach the audience in the auditorium.

Mobility – Activities with objects which happen to be on stage

Yan started to walk on stones at the wall and kept on making wheezing sound like a wind to proceed to throat singing. After that he kicked the stone around the stage, then he picked it by hand and touched around one of the microphones by the stone to make a special sound. Then he softly threw the stone back to the wall behind him. 

Interaction with the Audience and Active Audience Presence

In the first ten minutes Yan initiated interactive communication with the audience and asked them to hand him with some poems and collected them on little papers. Two times during the performance somebody among the audience asked Yan, if they could read aloud a poem, Yan nodded and some people among the audience read a poem aloud. 

Vasa and Yan have probably never met, but their concept of poetry performance, in Vasa’s case also described in his monograph The Physical Poetry, resonates with each other. This text constitutes merely an initial foray into interlinking Vasa and Yan by Vasa’s concept of physical poetry. This area of research offers considerable scope and potential for future exploration.

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References

VÁŠA, Petr. Fyzické básnictví [The Physical Poetry]. Brno: Host, 2011.

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^[1] Yan Jun kindly distributed video footage of his performance at the Aranya Poetry Festival (APF) in Jinshanling, China, on 1 October 2023 to the author. 

^[2] All translations of Vasa‘s terminology in Czech and excerpts from Yan’s poems in Chinese into English are the author’s translations, unless otherwise stated.

^[3] Petr Vasa is a physical poet, musician, performer, multi-skilled artist.

^[4] Vasa (2011: 18). Referring to the beginning of the formation of Vasa’s physical poetry concept, which he developed and which is also based on his physical poetry performances, Vasa pointed out: “I discovered an amazing space between speech and song, dance and pantomime, and of course, between humour and seriousness, elegance and brutality. Now everything that was hidden in the space between figurative drawing and calligraphy has been revealed to me. In my hands, figures became letters and vice versa.” ibid, 18.

^[5] ibid., 78-79.

^[6] Vasa mentioned that he used to walk around his hometown of Brno with a microphone and a notebook looking for places that were intriguing and interesting in terms of sound and situation (sounds of a grocery store ventilation fan, motorway, lift, sewer, railway crossing, pub, lawn mower, etc.) in order to practice non-verbal physical poetry improvisations (ibid.,19).

^[7] ibid., 25-26.

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Author Bio:

Sarka Masarova (Šárka Masárová in Czech) is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sinology at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, where she teaches courses on Chinese poetry since the 1980s, Chinese poetry of the 1920 – 1940s, 20th century Chinese women’s poetry, selected topics in 20th century Chinese poetry and poetry criticism etc. Her main research focus is poetry from mainland China since the 1980s.