Yang Lian stands with Bei Dao and others as one of the major living Chinese exiled poets. Indeed, he and Bei Dao both belonged to the group of poets described as the "Misty" poets in China. Lian's work has been nominated previously for the Nobel Prize. This new work is an important work of poetry in which the poet attempts to explore, through the ancient concept of YI, both the new and the profoundness of the old in Chinese perceptions. For Yang Lian this work represents a book of poetry "that constitutes Chinese cultural tradition reborn in the person of the contemporary poet."
Yang Lian's other works include Where the Sea Stands Still, Non-Person Singular, and Masks and Crocodile.