Ding Mang

Ding Mang, a male, born in September 1925, is a native of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province. He joined the revolution on March 7, 1946, and has worked for 30 years as a book and newspaper editor in the political organs of the PLA at all levels, and later as the editor of a large series of revolutionary memoirs called “Starfire” in the General Political Department of the PLA. He is a member of the Chinese Writers’ Association, vice chairman of the Chinese Prose Poetry Society, advisor to the Chinese Poetry Institute of the State Council, advisor to the Chinese Poetry Society, and honorary advisor to the World Chinese Poetry Association. He has been engaged in literary creation all his life and has made high achievements in new poetry, old-style poetry, prose, and poetry theory. In particular, he made an in-depth study of the aesthetic tradition and the current direction of Chinese poetry, and was the first in China to propose the idea of mutual absorption and convergence of old and new poetry styles to create a new mainstream poetry style, and then created a new style of “free song” in practice, and made a deeper and broader exploration and elaboration, in theory, pointing out the path of development of Chinese poetry. He was highly praised by Zang Kejia, He Jingzhi, Tu An, Gong Mu, Cheng Qianfan, and other poets in the poetry world. His calligraphy is self-contained and widely loved, and has spread both at home and abroad. He has published more than forty works, including “New Selected Poems”, “Selected Poems and Songs”, “Poetry Theory”, “Contemporary Poetics”, “Selected Prose”, and “Dingmang Calligraphy Collection”. In 2002, he published the six-million-word collection of Ding Mang’s writings. On February 8, 1999, the International Society of Chinese Poetry and Calligraphy and the OCPP Society of the Americas awarded him the title of “International Poet Laureate of the Twentieth Century”. In May 1999, his calligraphy works won the international honorary gold medal of the World Chinese Art Award; he was selected for the first joint exhibition of works by famous writers, poets, calligraphers, and painters in China.