Huang Xiang—poet, painter, and performer—is a native of the People's Republic of China living in the United States in exile. In his homeland, where his work has been banned, he was sentenced to labor reform multiple times on the charge of being a counterrevolutionary. Although he is a pioneer of the underground poetry movement in China, his poems are only now being appreciated by a wider audience. A Lifetime Is a Promiseto Keep provides an introduction to Huang Xiang and his poetry. According to the translator, Michelle Yeh, "As a poet, he addresses the perennial concerns with the inner self and the meaning of life." Regarding form, "Huang Xiang's prose poetry often begins as a pedestrian narrative, but as it unfolds, unexpected twists and turns are introduced, establishing roadblocks for readers and forcing them to read between the lines."

This volume makes Huang Xiang's poems accessible to readers of English and Chinese—the original Chinese poems are placed on pages facing their English translations. A reviewer explains: "Students who have no Chinese knowledge can read the English; students who have some but not enough can use the English to help them understand the Chinese; advanced graduate students can read the Chinese and see the choices a veteran translator makes in rendering the original into English."