We really enjoyed our conversation with Issue 2 contributor Eric Yang! Read on to see him break down his poem “the 美女 of nanking, 1937” and share a favorite Ocean Vuong poem.

Your poem “the 美女 of nanking, 1937” heartbreakingly and deftly examines memories of war and violence. You have a note at the end speaking to the term “美女” and its meaning in relation to the Nanking Massacre. It’s no easy task to tackle such complex and tragic topics in writing, but it is nevertheless critical that we share these stories. Can you tell us a little bit about what it meant to you to memorialize these women and their histories?

My poem “the 美女 of nanking, 1937” was mainly inspired by the stories of my great-grandmother who lived through the Japanese invasion of China in World War II. As a teenager, she witnessed civilians being murdered, bodies of her neighbors being blown into trees from bomb raids, and her town ravaged by destruction. While the heartbreaking devastation experienced by my great-grandmother was hard to ignore, what really struck me was the fact that much of the Pacific Theater of World War II is unknown to the general public. Events such as the Nanking Massacre are rarely covered in schools, and I was not aware of them until eighth grade, when I began researching them in my personal time. This poem pays tribute to the thousands of victims of not only the Nanking Massacre, but to all the wartime rape victims who suffered under Imperial Japanese rule. To memorialize these women and their histories for me is reclaiming a tragedy from the past, one that has constantly been forgotten and deserves the widespread recognition it has yet to receive. 

Your piece is divided into three sections labeled with headers that recall dictionary entries. How did you select the three words you used to delineate each section?

I chose to write “the 美女 of nanking, 1937” in triptych form with the headers, “to steal, to murder, to remember,” so my poem could resemble the movement of life and death. I was heavily inspired by the cyclic nature of life that is a prominent feature of multiple religions, which includes life, death, and rebirth. In my poem, I wanted to emphasize how lives weren’t just lost — they were stolen, people murdered. Therefore, “to steal” and “to murder” became the first two headings of the triptych in place of life and death. I approached the last stanza designated for rebirth a bit differently; to me, rebirth means continuously living, enduring, and surviving despite the confinements of time and death, rather than reincarnation. The key to such longevity is remembrance. I’m sure we have all heard some version of the quote, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ If one’s life is not remembered, if their suffering, pain, and experiences are not preserved, then their life ends and is erased immediately following their death. Conversely, if one’s life is remembered, is preserved, then they bear true immortality and “rebirth”. As of 2026, very few survivors of the Nanking Massacre remain, and that number will only continue to dwindle. There are still opportunities to remember, to preserve the thousands of lives lost, which is why it is so imperative to simply remember. Therefore, the last stanza of my poem bears the header, “to remember”.

Your poem ends on a hopeful note with “i shuck the name, / raw, down to its pit & reclaim myself.” What drove you to craft this ending? Did you have any other endings you were considering, or did you always want to finish on a hopeful sentiment?

This is such a fascinating question! I do believe the ending is the most pivotal moment in a poem's lifespan, as a poem’s final lines can completely reframe a reader’s perception of an idea or cause. When crafting “the 美女 of nanking, 1937”, I had the choice to weave a sense of hopefulness and poignancy into the ending, or to conclude the poem on a devastating and shattering note. I ultimately settled for a hopeful ending, one that would illuminate a different facet of the phrase ‘美女’. Historically, this word meant abuse, sexual slavery, rape, and mass violence against women. Imperial Japanese soldiers would rake through entire neighborhoods and villages, hollering out ‘美女’ to lure, gather, and inveigle young women and schoolgirls into a system of mass sexual slavery. Though behind the outer shell of the word ‘美女’, there’s a more humane aspect that is often marred by the overwhelming destruction and trauma this phrase has caused. Behind every woman victimized by sexual slavery and wartime rape, there was a mother, a grandmother, a daughter, a sister — a human being who was loved and valued. History often blurs victims into a statistic: the mothers, grandmothers, daughters, and sisters all of a sudden becoming the 20,000 rape victims of the Nanking Massacre listed in archives. Through my poem’s hopeful ending, I hope to shuck the phrase ‘美女’, the name branded over these women, an inherent scar of the suffering they endured. I hope to reclaim the word, peel back the layers of devastation and destruction prompted by this phrase to find commemoration and remembrance of victims at its heart.

What poets have you been reading lately that you’d recommend? Is there a line from a poem that has stuck with you recently? 

I love reading contemporary poetry in my free time, mainly from renowned poets as well as literary magazines! One of my favorite poets is Ocean Vuong. Vuong’s ability to thread violence and war into his work powerfully and sublimely, casting history to the precipice of time and consciousness, is truly inspiring and breathtaking; Vuong’s poems unveil the horrors of the Vietnam War while still infused with fragile love and affection in perilous times. One of my favorite poems of Vuong’s is his poem, “Kissing in Vietnamese”, where Vuong deftly reevaluates the action of kissing in times where life and love are jeopardized by death: “When my grandmother kisses, there would be / no flashy smooching, no western music / of pursed lips, she kisses as if to breathe / you inside her, nose pressed to cheek / so that your scent is relearned / and your sweat pearls into drops of gold / inside her lungs,” is one of my favorite lines from this poem as Vuong constructs a devastating contrast between two people, two kisses, and two acts of affection.

Finally, since we’re Marmalade Lit, do you have a favorite bread, pastry, or jam?

This is such a difficult pick for me, though I would have to choose caterpillar bread (also known as 毛毛虫面包)! Caterpillar bread is a long, thin, caterpillar-shaped baked bread stuffed with cream filling, melted chocolate, or meat! It is a very common pastry found across Asian bakeries!