Gu Cheng was part of the group which founded the seminal non-official literary journal Today during the 1979-80 Democracy Wall movement, or "Beijing Spring", of which his own work became emblematic. A major talent, his poetry stands as a reminder of the quality of the work produced in China in the mid-1980s, despite sporadic official attacks. Gu Cheng left China in 1987. He finally settled in New Zealand where he continued to experiment with poetic form and content. His personal life, however, took a tragic turn, culminating in his suicide and the death of his wife in 1993.