THE JOURNAL OF 21st Century Chinese Poetry 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》is an independent journal committed to showcasing the best of contemporary Chinese poetry. We exist to discover and celebrate poetry and the Chinese poets who write them with the largest possible Anglophone audience.

In the early twentieth century, The May Fourth Movement (1917-1921) launched an era where vernacular Chinese was for the first time accepted as a legitimate poetic voice. This was followed by an outpouring of verse written in 'plain speech' by people from all walks of life in contrast to the classical, elitist poetic forms of imperial China.

A century has now passed since these 'new' poetic voices emerged. Vernacular poetry has continued to blossom in poetry journals and in cyberspace.

The editor and translators at 21st Century Chinese Poetry are committed to translating poets from across China who would otherwise remain virtually unknown to Western audiences.

Please send all enquiries, suggestions and corrections regarding 21st Century Chinese Poetry to Meifu Wang at:

editor@modernchinesepoetry.com.

Founder and Editor
Meifu Wang



A TASTE OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POETRY

From 2012 to 2015, our team worked with a group of Chinese poets in China to introduce contemporary Chinese poetry to the wider world. We translated the recent works of 66 contemporary Chinese poets into English and broadcast them on this website and in print (ISSN 2166-3688).

From 2018 to 2022, we further collaborated with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊) to bring a selection of their monthly publication to the world-wide readers. Poetry Journal (Beijing, China）was founded in 1957, with an emphasis on the publication of contemporary Chinese poetry as well as classical poetry by living poets. It is the widest-circulated poetry journal in China.

Circulating more than sixty years, the journal has brought together and introduced a great number of poets, reflecting many of the sweeping changes that the country has witnessed over that period.

A REPOSE

Since summer of 2023, Meifu has turned her focus to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to visit this website and look through the poems we translated over the years.

or read some of Meifu's poems:
Dirt Road
Water Droplets
Sea Crag
To Melville
To Father
Dirge
Reading Baudelaire Into the Night

We are in the process of updating and re-printing the old numbers of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15). Please stay tuned.

POEM OF THE DAY     一天一首诗

A FLOCK OF BIRDS

• by Mu Bei


• Someone is talking about a flock of birds, describing it as if
• it were an age-old injury but still fresh-looking.
• He also describes springtime as if it were some personality, as if
• all things were irremovable from time and infallible in time.
• He describes the forest where the birds once perched,
• the lushness that characterized the forest, a world
• with nothing else but verdure...It's as if words were his garish old pet,
• coming and going like fantasies, beyond the reach of time. It's as if
• the flock of birds were still circling around, over where the forest used to be.
• Translated by Meifu Wang, Michael Soper & Guy Hibbert

First appeared on this website and simultaneously in China via WeChat （微信） by our partner — China's Poetry Journal （诗刊）

  

Mu Bei 牧北 (梁世博)

b. 1970s

Mu bei (birth name: Liang Shibo) was born in Haicheng, Liaoning Province in northeastern China. He is a school teacher, school administrator, and the editor of The Dandelion, a literary magazine for the youth. His poems have appeared in literary publications across China.

牧北，本名梁世博，生于70年代末，辽宁海城人。辽宁文学院第五届新锐作家班成员，第二届中青年作家班成员，辽宁省作家协会会员。作品发表于《星星》《鸭绿江》《扬子江》《绿风》《草原》《满族文学》《诗林》等刊物，著有诗集《投宿苍茫》。从事农村小学、初中语文教育教学工作十五年，曾为某中学校刊《梨花》执行主编。现供职于海城市教育局，海城市作协副主席。海城市后英实验学校文学指导教师，校刊《杨柳河》执行主编。主编学生民间文学刊物《蒲公英》。