Michael Jackson and his poems remembered in China

A dazzling show rocked Beijing on Saturday at a special book launch for Michael Jackson’s “Dancing the Dream: Poems and Reflections” in China on the seventh anniversary of the King of Pop’s death.

Top Chinese Michael Jackson impersonators Wang Jingyuan, Lu Yuantao, and eight-year-old child star Yu Tianyang danced to MJ’s poems and classic songs. The performances on Saturday were designed around the book “Dancing the Dream,” which was originally released in 1992 but was never published in China until now.

Several Chinese TV and radio anchors and hosts, including Fan Long, Wang Lin, Han Dong and well-known performers He Jinwen, Hu Lemin, also joined the cast, using emotional voices to read Jackson’s poems, translated into Chinese by Chen Dongbiao.

Top cultural critics Wang Xiaofeng, Keen Zhang and China National Radio host Zhang Dawei briefly remembered Jackson before the show started.

“I was born in the 1960s, but I’ve seen people born during the 1970s to the 2000s come here today to commemorate him,” Wang said, “this is enough to show how big he was and he will continue to influence the world.” Wang called Jackson a “legend” and added that the singer was the one who opened Chinese eyes and ears in the 1980s when China first opened up to the world.

On the seventh anniversary of his death on June 25, Chinese fans have expressed their love and commemoration to their icon in many ways, including flash mobs and vigils, now they’re hoping to explore more of his legacy taking him as source of spiritual inspiration.

Before the new Chinese version, there was one edition of a poem translated by Taiwan-based lyricist Chen Lerong. For the new version, the publishing press invited Chen Dongbiao, an experienced and established translator who has published translations of Vladimir Nabokov, William Butler Yeats, Jorge Luis Borges and Ezra Pound since the 1990s.

“I suggest readers to pick up his book pretending that they haven’t ever heard of him,” Chen said. “You’ll discover a new dimension to examine Jackson, while seeing the world through his eyes.”

Insisting that time will tell if the poems are great, Chen says it is the poems that help piece together the multi-faceted Jackson into a complete personality.

Keen Zhang, who is the president of the Michael Jackson Chinese Fanclub (MJJCN.com), used two words to describe Jackson at the event, “innocent and pure.” He refused to believe the disturbing innuendos portrayed in the tabloids through the years.

Recently, news surfaced from Radar Online that a police report suggested that Jackson had a stash of child, torture, and sexually explicit animal sacrifice pornography seized by authorities during the 2003 police raid on his Neverland Valley Ranch.

But Jackson’s defense attorney Thomas Mesereau said that the information is “dated, exaggerated and irrelevant. It was all litigated in 2005. It was completely rejected by a jury 11 years ago..” During his 2005 trial, authorities discovered that Jackson owned conventional adult magazines like “Playboy” and “Penthouse,” but asserted there was no child pornography among his belongings.

“A poetry collection will reach wider audiences beyond the fans, enabling more people to appreciate Jackson’s extraordinary talent and benevolent heart,” said Huang Yan, Shanghai Cai Qin Ren Culture’s deputy editor-in-chief, “The book will offer a window for people to view Jackson and eliminate misunderstandings.”

Huang’s company co-presented “Dancing the Dream” with the East China Normal University Press and Shanghai Qiyeshu Culture Media, as the book is licensed by the Estate of Michael Jackson. The Chinese version is loyal to the 1992 first edition by Doubleday, is bilingual with both of the translation and original text, and is intensively illustrated with some 100 photos, art pieces and sketches from Jackson’s personal collection.

The book is only one of the two books written by Jackson. The other is his autobiography “Moonwalk.”

During a Simulchat in 1995, Michael Jackson stated, “I wrote a book called ‘Dancing the Dream.’ It was more autobiographical than ‘Moonwalk,’ which I did with Mrs. Onassis. It wasn’t full of gossip and scandal and all that trash that people write, so I don’t think people paid much attention to it, but it came from my heart. It was essays, thoughts and things that I’ve thought about while on tour.”

Michael Jackson died of an acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in Los Angeles due to homicidal negligence by his personal physician on June 25, 2009. Jackson’s death has triggered an outpouring of grief from around the world for the past seven years.

Zhang, the fanclub leader, added that his club has raised nearly US$6,000 to buy thousands of flowers in the United States to place them at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California where Jackson was laid to rest. Meanwhile, the Shanghai fan club also rented tribute time on Shanghai’s biggest outdoor screen on one side of the 140-meter-high, 43-meter-wide Citigroup Tower at the Bund on June 25 to show images of Jackson dancing.

SOURCE: China.org