In the lush woods of new poems thrives “a rose garden.” We can see how its flowers bloom in the online blog entitled Bing Hua Lounge. Its exquisiteness and depth are certainly extraordinary! The blogger is Bing Hua, “the Queen of Love Poems.” Unswung by the trendy rush or political preaching, firmly grasping the sacred essence of Mother Nature, she accents her iridescent color on the beauty of nature and life and on the harmony, affection, and true love among humans and between the humans and nature.

Her poems center on lauding the love of life and the beauty of affection. With remarkable poetic lines, she has created one after another vital and wonderful artistic realms. Thus, in her own way of sentiment, her own way of language, and her own way of rhythm, she has freely and fully instilled the female’s tender, warm, and affectionate feelings into the deep souls of her readers. She, by a creek, in a garden, or even in the field of her whole life, meticulously cultivates aromatic roses. In this, she also cultivates beauty.

With the enthusiasm and sincerity like a baby, she consciously practices in her creative works what Wang Guowei complimented Nalan Xingde, “To see the world through the eye of nature and to express the feelings with the voice of nature.” As if she were a cluster of ice flowers, she integrates her whole heart into nature so she could directly communicate with nature and directly submerge herself in the orderly and unorderly boundless firmament. This is indeed meritorious. This is a very unique and culture-rich life experience and mental enlightenment.

Her practice of Wang Guowei’s compliment empowers her, in the creation of poetry, to integrate subjective feelings with objective images and to enliven images with spirit. This is an important aesthetic aspect of her creative practice and forms a unique individuality in her creative style.

These characteristics are well revealed in some of her appealing, praiseworthy short poems such as The Hand Fan, Neither out of Flighty or Levity, etc., in which all the ingenious lines and wondrous images come from close observation of nature and are the reflection of it as well.

It is indeed a rare phenomenon in recent years that what a poet has produced has won such broad popularity among her readers. Looking from this perspective, when we talk about Bing Hua’s poems, we cannot just touch upon her works ---- We should also consider this unavoidable phenomenon. Let’s for the time being refer this “phenomenon” as the “Bing Hua Phenomenon.”

German philosopher Martin Heidegger once said in his Origin of the Work of Art, “To be a work means to _set_ up a world…,“ yet the “world” Bing Hua has _set_ up is somewhat special in that it evokes endless imaginations in her readers. This is undoubtedly the most important characteristic of her works, and its effectiveness can be summarized in three words: “quickly, widely, and surprisingly.” Here “quickly” refers to how quickly her works reach her readers; “widely” refers to how widely her readers become, respond, and comment; and “surprisingly“ refers to how surprisingly her readers cheer for her creation.

The popularity of Bing Hua’s poems reminds me of a Mongolian proverb “When a wild goose takes off, it splashes the water in the lake; when a girl marries, she carries the Feng Shui from the village.“ This explains why Fengdi Poetry Club went so far as to spread the glad news and give welcoming speeches when Bing Hua joined the club. The club pushed the welcoming wave so high that it even went out of its way to have bought a full-page of a California newspaper to run a special welcome news for her. Over the last few years, more than a dozen readers have sent her paintings and calligraphic works to express their sincere thanks for the spiritual nourishment they have drawn from her poems.

In Bing Hua’s poems, young maidens are pure and naïve, which infuses readers with the mood Li Qingzhao’s “Dian Jian Chun” would reflect while matured maidens, graceful and heartwarming, like those depicted in her The Lotus’ Obsession and other poems. These poems are posted online, but some readers still think these poems are written particularly for them. Some readers even think the poet must be a young maiden herself. With this imagination, they sleepwalk in the artistic realms she has created and sink into youthful longing. One of the readers even prepared a gift and planned to visit her. As if spell-bound, another reader has written over a hundred love letters to her. What a fascinating story in the world of poetry.

The formation of “Bing Hua Phenomenon” involves both social and artistic factors. Obviously, in studying such a poet, we should examine both her creative state and the cultural meaning of her works from a specific social perspective. In today’s world of materialism, more and more people long to return to nature to find the origin of love. This is the moment Bing Hua’s poems have reached their hearts. This is exactly like what a Tang’s poetic line depicts “spring rain quietly nourishes all beings.”

Mr. Ya Xuan once compared “poetry writing to love affairs” and pointed out that “every poet is a great lover him- or herself.” If we agree with him, then, the “abnormality” of “Bing Hua Phenomenon” would look quite “normal.” It is unarguable that Bing Hua has played a very special cultural role during this social transitional period.

Over the years, in the field of poetry, such soul-touching baby’s pureness and candor have been rarely seen. Her inter-cultural poetic creativity will almost certainly be well received by readers of different nationalities, from different ethnic backgrounds, and with different languages. Her remarkable poems, along with the footprints she has left on the poetic road, have provided thought-provoking topics for the study of literature.

(Translated by Xu Yingcai)