Closed Gate

by Sayed Gouda

Durrah, a Palestinian from Gaza, studies in Beijing in 1989. He witnesses the student demonstration from its beginning until the crackdown. Closed Gate alludes to the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) in Beijing and the Gate of Harmony and Remedy (Rafah) in Gaza. Closed Gate was banned in China one week after it was launched in Hong Kong. The author's contract to teach at Beijing Normal University was suddenly cancelled without given any convincing reason.

186 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Born in Cairo in 1968, Sayed graduated from the Faculty of Languages in Cairo and the Beijing Languages Institute in Beijing, majoring in Chinese language. He won the faculty first prize in poetry in 1990, and published his first book of poetry in Cairo the same year. His latest book of poetry was published in Egypt recently by Merit Publishers.

Sayed has been living in Hong Kong since 1992, where he organizes a monthly Arabic poetry session. He has translated a large number of Chinese and English poems into Arabic and they were published in Akhbar Al-Adab – a literary newspaper -- in a special edition about poetry in China and Hong Kong.