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City Gate, Open Up
In 2001, to visit his sick father, the exiled poet Bei Dao returned to his homeland for the first time in over twenty years. The city of his birth was totally unrecognizable. “My city that once was had vanished,” he writes: “I was a foreigner in my hometown.” The shock of this experience released a flood of memories and emotions that sparked Open Up, City Gate. In this lyrical autobiography of growing up—from the birth of the People’s Republic, through the chaotic years of the Great Leap Forward, and on into the Cultural Revolution—Bei Dao uses his extraordinary gifts as a poet and storyteller to create another Beijing, a beautiful memory palace of endless alleyways and corridors, where personal narrative mixes with the momentous history he lived through. At the center of the book are his parents and siblings, and their everyday life together through famine and festival. Open Up, City Gate is told in an episodic, fluid style that moves back and forth through the poet’s childhood, recreating the smells and sounds, the laughter and the danger, of a boy’s coming of age during a time of enormous change and upheaval.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
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579 people want to read
About the author
Bei Dao
84 books121 followersName in Chinese: 北岛
Bei Dao ("Northern Island") is another name for Zhifu Island.
Bei Dao literally "Northern Island", born August 2, 1949) is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai. He was born in Beijing. He chose the pen name because he came from the north and because of his preference for solitude. Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.
As a teenager, Bei Dao was a member of the Red Guards, the enthusiastic followers of Mao Zedong who enforced the dictates of the Cultural Revolution, often through violent means. He had misgivings about the Revolution and was "re-educated" as a construction worker, from 1969 to 1980.[5] Bei Dao and Mang Ke founded the magazine Jintian[6] (Today), the central publication of the Misty Poets, which was published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned. The work of the Misty Poets and Bei Dao in particular were an inspiration to pro-democracy movements in China. Most notable was his poem "Huida" ("The Answer") which was written during the 1976 Tiananmen demonstrations in which he participated. The poem was taken up as a defiant anthem of the pro-democracy movement and appeared on posters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. During the 1989 protests and subsequent shootings, Bei Dao was at a literary conference in Berlin and was not allowed to return to China until 2006. (Three other leading Misty Poets — Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian — were also exiled.) His then wife, Shao Fei, and their daughter were not allowed to leave China to join him for another six years.
Since 1987, Bei Dao has lived and taught in England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and the United States. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages, including five poetry volumes in English[7] along with the story collection Waves (1990) and the essay collections Blue House (2000) and Midnight's Gate (2005). Bei Dao continued his work in exile. His work has been included in anthologies such as The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry Since the Cultural Revolution (1990)[8] and Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese poetry.[9]
Bei Dao has won numerous awards, including the Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN, International Poetry Argana Award from the House of Poetry in Morocco and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Jintian was resurrected in Stockholm in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers. He has taught and lectured at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Beloit College, Wisconsin, and is Professor of Humanities in the Center for East Asian Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Bei Dao ("Northern Island") is another name for Zhifu Island.
Bei Dao literally "Northern Island", born August 2, 1949) is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai. He was born in Beijing. He chose the pen name because he came from the north and because of his preference for solitude. Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.
As a teenager, Bei Dao was a member of the Red Guards, the enthusiastic followers of Mao Zedong who enforced the dictates of the Cultural Revolution, often through violent means. He had misgivings about the Revolution and was "re-educated" as a construction worker, from 1969 to 1980.[5] Bei Dao and Mang Ke founded the magazine Jintian[6] (Today), the central publication of the Misty Poets, which was published from 1978 until 1980, when it was banned. The work of the Misty Poets and Bei Dao in particular were an inspiration to pro-democracy movements in China. Most notable was his poem "Huida" ("The Answer") which was written during the 1976 Tiananmen demonstrations in which he participated. The poem was taken up as a defiant anthem of the pro-democracy movement and appeared on posters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. During the 1989 protests and subsequent shootings, Bei Dao was at a literary conference in Berlin and was not allowed to return to China until 2006. (Three other leading Misty Poets — Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian — were also exiled.) His then wife, Shao Fei, and their daughter were not allowed to leave China to join him for another six years.
Since 1987, Bei Dao has lived and taught in England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and the United States. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages, including five poetry volumes in English[7] along with the story collection Waves (1990) and the essay collections Blue House (2000) and Midnight's Gate (2005). Bei Dao continued his work in exile. His work has been included in anthologies such as The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry Since the Cultural Revolution (1990)[8] and Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese poetry.[9]
Bei Dao has won numerous awards, including the Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN, International Poetry Argana Award from the House of Poetry in Morocco and the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Jintian was resurrected in Stockholm in 1990 as a forum for expatriate Chinese writers. He has taught and lectured at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Beloit College, Wisconsin, and is Professor of Humanities in the Center for East Asian Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 12, 2023
在开篇里北岛就说，他要用文字重建一个自己的北京：“用我的北京否认如今的北京”。然而，与此同时，只要这本书还想用简体中文来出版，那么或多或少，如今的北京就一定会遮蔽他的北京。
北岛也在书中自问：“那留在历史深处的哭声，除了我还有谁能听见？”可我想，但凡有心的读者，就一定能从这本书里听见那历史深处的哭声、枪声和叹息声。
“关键是他们从未有过什么反省”。这个结论在此刻的我们看来，比北岛写下它们的时候还要来得真切。大潮飞速退去，往日汹涌而来。面对遮蔽，否认是如此地天真和无力。
没有关系。我们能够听见，也总有人不会忘记。
谎言总是易朽的，而城门迟早会开启。
北岛也在书中自问：“那留在历史深处的哭声，除了我还有谁能听见？”可我想，但凡有心的读者，就一定能从这本书里听见那历史深处的哭声、枪声和叹息声。
“关键是他们从未有过什么反省”。这个结论在此刻的我们看来，比北岛写下它们的时候还要来得真切。大潮飞速退去，往日汹涌而来。面对遮蔽，否认是如此地天真和无力。
没有关系。我们能够听见，也总有人不会忘记。
谎言总是易朽的，而城门迟早会开启。
June 25, 2018
Bei Dao’s City Gate, Open Up is a memoir for a particular kind of person. I suspect that, if you have picked up the book already, you know why.
City Gate, Open Up focuses on Bei Dao’s family members, neighbors, and friends, as well as his schools, places of travel, and Chinese historical events—pretty much anything but waxing poetic about the poet himself. You learn about Bei Dao through how he talks about all of those other things; about how they interacted with him and about how he reacted to them. China, really, being the central figure in this memoir, it endured much pain in the 300 hundred pages, and the narrative weaved through them spends little time praising the author himself. That is not to say that the author’s fingerprints aren’t everywhere. Each word is ultimately down to the way Bei Dao wanted to describe it. Of note, death is often presented subdued. That a figure ended their own life often falls at the final sentence of a paragraph, the next paragraph beginning a new train of thought, leaving little room for sentiment. And Bei Dao’s political participation is told plainly, with little glory or self-imposed criticism.
The second two-thirds of City Gate, Open Up continually confronted me with contradictions, within the text, within history, and within myself. For the American reader, description of the Cultural Revolution and several other mid-to-late 20th century Chinese events will leave you in awe, with anger, with reverence, with confusion. You will likely be filled with sympathy while also feeling no sympathy whatsoever. Your reverence for the memoir’s author will be complicated, in a satisfying and regretful way. After 300 pages you will learn so much, without being able to really grasp what silently took place some time ago without your knowledge. All this to say, City Gate, Open Up is as much a Chinese memoir as it is a Bei Dao memoir, as the country’s recent history has bestowed upon an entire population a mark of mutual experience, spanning multiple generations. From the outset, the final chapter clearly takes a personal turn, as its namesake “Father”, suggests. While 297 pages of City Gate, Open Up are emotionally reserved, one sentence on page 298 will provide any reader who devoted their time to reach it the catharsis s/he so wanted leading up to it, even being somewhat contrived and familiar to father-son tropes.
I really don’t know how I will feel about City Gate, Open Up in another month. I do not regret reading it, nor do I know what exactly I got out of it. There is something beyond reproach or analysis about this kind of memoir, so I’ll just stow it away into a neat, retrievable part of my memory for later.
City Gate, Open Up focuses on Bei Dao’s family members, neighbors, and friends, as well as his schools, places of travel, and Chinese historical events—pretty much anything but waxing poetic about the poet himself. You learn about Bei Dao through how he talks about all of those other things; about how they interacted with him and about how he reacted to them. China, really, being the central figure in this memoir, it endured much pain in the 300 hundred pages, and the narrative weaved through them spends little time praising the author himself. That is not to say that the author’s fingerprints aren’t everywhere. Each word is ultimately down to the way Bei Dao wanted to describe it. Of note, death is often presented subdued. That a figure ended their own life often falls at the final sentence of a paragraph, the next paragraph beginning a new train of thought, leaving little room for sentiment. And Bei Dao’s political participation is told plainly, with little glory or self-imposed criticism.
The second two-thirds of City Gate, Open Up continually confronted me with contradictions, within the text, within history, and within myself. For the American reader, description of the Cultural Revolution and several other mid-to-late 20th century Chinese events will leave you in awe, with anger, with reverence, with confusion. You will likely be filled with sympathy while also feeling no sympathy whatsoever. Your reverence for the memoir’s author will be complicated, in a satisfying and regretful way. After 300 pages you will learn so much, without being able to really grasp what silently took place some time ago without your knowledge. All this to say, City Gate, Open Up is as much a Chinese memoir as it is a Bei Dao memoir, as the country’s recent history has bestowed upon an entire population a mark of mutual experience, spanning multiple generations. From the outset, the final chapter clearly takes a personal turn, as its namesake “Father”, suggests. While 297 pages of City Gate, Open Up are emotionally reserved, one sentence on page 298 will provide any reader who devoted their time to reach it the catharsis s/he so wanted leading up to it, even being somewhat contrived and familiar to father-son tropes.
I really don’t know how I will feel about City Gate, Open Up in another month. I do not regret reading it, nor do I know what exactly I got out of it. There is something beyond reproach or analysis about this kind of memoir, so I’ll just stow it away into a neat, retrievable part of my memory for later.
June 22, 2017
这本书让我同时想起谢尔盖·多甫拉托夫的《我们一家人》和《手提箱》，还有Elie Wiesel 的《Night》。与前二者相似的是作者的自嘲，与后者相似的是溢于字里行间的映在作者眼里的苦难。
由于特殊的时代背景，作者关于个人成长和老北京的回忆，除了个人意义还有了历史意义——其实这两者本来就是一体的——宏大历史产生的一切都作用于或背负在每个个体的日常生活甚至他们的人生轨迹当中。这双眼睛、这颗心，记录了珍贵的几亿分之一。于是在缺乏直面历史的历史书的环境下，这样的作品多少发挥了历史书的作用，为我提供了拼凑历史面貌的碎片。五十年代政治运动、文革的疯狂、运动中比纸薄的人命，在看似轻描淡写中其实得到了眼角的正视。但我们还需要真正的直视。大历史下的小人物似乎没有一个是自由的：蝼蚁般的小人物永远不知也无法掌控何时会被灾难的巨轮碾得面目全非。那些蝼蚁般的小人物，就是你、我、他。但历史不也是人创造的吗？
由于特殊的时代背景，作者关于个人成长和老北京的回忆，除了个人意义还有了历史意义——其实这两者本来就是一体的——宏大历史产生的一切都作用于或背负在每个个体的日常生活甚至他们的人生轨迹当中。这双眼睛、这颗心，记录了珍贵的几亿分之一。于是在缺乏直面历史的历史书的环境下，这样的作品多少发挥了历史书的作用，为我提供了拼凑历史面貌的碎片。五十年代政治运动、文革的疯狂、运动中比纸薄的人命，在看似轻描淡写中其实得到了眼角的正视。但我们还需要真正的直视。大历史下的小人物似乎没有一个是自由的：蝼蚁般的小人物永远不知也无法掌控何时会被灾难的巨轮碾得面目全非。那些蝼蚁般的小人物，就是你、我、他。但历史不也是人创造的吗？
April 27, 2020
我是想了解老北京所以看了这本儿 此前北岛给我唯一的印象就是：写“杯子碰在一起 是梦碎的声音”的那个还活着的诗人。
喜欢前50%关于城市的记忆，那些光影 气味 声音。你们说他怀念的究竟是故乡还是童年呢？大约都是有的。我好羡慕在有历史的城市长大的人 北京啊 南京啊 西安啊 扬州啊 有几代人的记忆的本地人是不一样的。（而我 新疆的 汉族 字面儿上能看出一丝尴尬来哈哈哈
北岛写这书的年龄多大？很厉害的一点是他视角和口吻里的天真感 还带着点儿旁观者的冷静 但我总不觉得他是思无邪的 大约因为他是经历过浩劫的人 是狂热的人的一部分 我是不太信任第一视角中出现的良知 老觉得有粉饰感。
不过忍俊不禁的地方真是有很多！骗眼泪的地方也有好多！北京真的好可爱！扣一颗星给他说北京四中是最好的学校哈哈哈
喜欢前50%关于城市的记忆，那些光影 气味 声音。你们说他怀念的究竟是故乡还是童年呢？大约都是有的。我好羡慕在有历史的城市长大的人 北京啊 南京啊 西安啊 扬州啊 有几代人的记忆的本地人是不一样的。（而我 新疆的 汉族 字面儿上能看出一丝尴尬来哈哈哈
北岛写这书的年龄多大？很厉害的一点是他视角和口吻里的天真感 还带着点儿旁观者的冷静 但我总不觉得他是思无邪的 大约因为他是经历过浩劫的人 是狂热的人的一部分 我是不太信任第一视角中出现的良知 老觉得有粉饰感。
不过忍俊不禁的地方真是有很多！骗眼泪的地方也有好多！北京真的好可爱！扣一颗星给他说北京四中是最好的学校哈哈哈
November 5, 2021
really interesting translation as it retained direct translations of chinese phrases instead of changing it to fit english
March 1, 2013
关于文化大革命，浓浓的京味贯穿始终
September 8, 2013
中学时候读北岛爱北岛，到现在才渐渐觉得认识他，更喜欢了。
September 2, 2017
Bei Dao tries to remember his Beijing in Ping Pong shots and spurts of sudden to slow to no or below electric energy. City gates close and open and close again from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Corridors of understatement.
"Reading books has nothing to do with going to school, the two totally separate activities--reading, as being outside the classroom, and books, as being outside textbooks--so that what happens when reading books arises out of a kind of mysterious life power, which has nothing to do with any profit or gain. The experience of reading is like a well-lit road, illuminating the darkness during our brief existence, and at the end of the darkness burns a candle flame that can be called the zero point of reading." (147)
"Reading books has nothing to do with going to school, the two totally separate activities--reading, as being outside the classroom, and books, as being outside textbooks--so that what happens when reading books arises out of a kind of mysterious life power, which has nothing to do with any profit or gain. The experience of reading is like a well-lit road, illuminating the darkness during our brief existence, and at the end of the darkness burns a candle flame that can be called the zero point of reading." (147)
November 4, 2024
3.5
In the hutong…we all fam
Full of Beijingisms that def would appeal to a very particular generation of nostalgic upper-middle class folks...if anyone has ever wondered what it's like to be held verbally hostage by a Chinese uncle talking about his upbringing this book does a pretty good job at recreating that experience. To their credit, it was a fascinatingly disorienting time and place to come of age.
The inclusion of Chinese onomatopoeia and idioms were really cool, but I don't think it'll make much sense if one has never encountered them before. Authentic sure, but all meaning is lost once translated into English.
In the hutong…we all fam
Full of Beijingisms that def would appeal to a very particular generation of nostalgic upper-middle class folks...if anyone has ever wondered what it's like to be held verbally hostage by a Chinese uncle talking about his upbringing this book does a pretty good job at recreating that experience. To their credit, it was a fascinatingly disorienting time and place to come of age.
The inclusion of Chinese onomatopoeia and idioms were really cool, but I don't think it'll make much sense if one has never encountered them before. Authentic sure, but all meaning is lost once translated into English.
July 13, 2017
The experience of China from the revolution to the 21st century parallels Bei Dao's life. The tumultuous early years of the 50s and early 60s are largely through the eyes of a child, the Cultural Revolution through the eyes of a young man, the present day steps back from Beijing to take in a larger world. So compelling to get a glimpse of a world that's foreign to Westerners, through the eyes of someone for whom it's completely normal.
August 11, 2025
Absolutely up there in my favorite books I’ve read so far, Im not much into autobiographical works but this was different. Really paints a picture of how life used to be growing up in Beijing during the cultural revolution and the rise of the red guards.
Also helps understand how Mao was almost this all seing godlike being for children and how he could strike at any moment.
This book leaves things open to your own interpretation too, regardless of your political and historical views.
Also helps understand how Mao was almost this all seing godlike being for children and how he could strike at any moment.
This book leaves things open to your own interpretation too, regardless of your political and historical views.
July 1, 2018
This book made me think of <我们仨> written by Jiang Yang. Both books are about top-class intellectual families in China’s tragic history events. The difference is this book is about a big family’s destiny from a perspective of a man, a son while Jiang Yangs book is about a small family, only father mother and daughter, from a perspective of a woman, a mother.
September 7, 2020
北岛在《城门开》里描绘了一个他印象里的北京。那个北京有不同于现在的色彩、气味与氛围，带有少年成长过程中的冒险、暴力、饥饿和性萌动，以及整整一代人命运被随意抛掷的颠沛流离。当年那个高呼“我不相信”的诗人在外漂泊二十年，记忆中的故乡支离破碎，故乡人变成异乡人，所以书里的记忆碎片大多灰暗压抑，带有鲜明的时代色彩。作为一个流亡者，这无疑是其心境的真实反映。另外作为诗人，北岛的文字功底深厚，语言隽永，绮丽却精准，读来震撼。
October 11, 2021
北岛重建了一个四维的北京城，不仅有空间的伸展还有时间的维度。视觉、味觉、嗅觉，所感、所思、所想，堪称一个北京人的 coming of age 故事。和现中国同年诞生的他在89年以后被禁止入内地（除却人道主义探亲之外），看似是命运的嘲讽，其实全都是人的意志。写到政治的时候客气又压抑，一个又一个认识的人，在书中仅仅用几个字就从世界上消失了，就好像捻灭一豆烛火一样简单，但是在现实中情景让人不敢稍有想象。希望他一切都好。十几年前回去，他尚能找到童年依稀的影子。不知道他如果能再回去，会不会被惊得哑口无言？
August 22, 2023
記得九歲那年 春天，父親帶我去北海公園玩。回家的路上，暮色四起，略帶解凍的寒意。沿湖邊徐行，離公園後門兩三百米處，父親放慢腳步，環顧遊人，突然對我說：「這裡所有的人，一百年後都不在了，包括我們。」我愣住，抬頭看父親，他鏡片閃光，隱隱露出一絲嘲笑。
2003年1月11日，星期六，我像往常那樣，上午10點左右來到三〇四醫院病房。第二天我就要返回美國了。中午時分，我餵完飯，用電動剃領刀幫他把臉刮淨。
我們都知道，最後的時刻到了。他舌頭在口中用力翻卷，居然吐出幾個清晰的字：「我愛你。」我衝動地摟住他：
「爸爸，我也愛你。」記憶所及，這是我們第一次也是最後一次這樣說話。
2003年1月11日，星期六，我像往常那樣，上午10點左右來到三〇四醫院病房。第二天我就要返回美國了。中午時分，我餵完飯，用電動剃領刀幫他把臉刮淨。
我們都知道，最後的時刻到了。他舌頭在口中用力翻卷，居然吐出幾個清晰的字：「我愛你。」我衝動地摟住他：
「爸爸，我也愛你。」記憶所及，這是我們第一次也是最後一次這樣說話。
April 9, 2022
Written and translated in wonderful prose. The chapters are separated by means only a poet would imagine.
July 24, 2024
3 3/4 stars
July 8, 2024
这本书带我走进一段历史，走进几十年前的那一条条胡同，走进一段亲密的回忆。
May 3, 2020
An incredible recollection of an incredible time and city. The writing was engaging. The chapters well paced. The chapters on Beijing No 4 High school and his father are especially important and touching.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews