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 NEW SEASON OF POETRY
We were pleased to work in partnership with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊), from 2019 to 2022 to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to our readers. Poetry Journal((诗刊),, 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 close to sixty years, the journal has been at the forefront of publishing modern Chinese poetry, reflecting many of the sweeping changes that the country has witnessed over that period. The journal has also brought together and introduced a great number of fine poets, published a veritable styles of poems, and contributed to the continuous flowering of Chinese poetry.
Read these poems here:
YET ANOTHER SEASON OF POETRY
Summer 2022, the 21st Century Chinese Poetry team is progressing to the next phase: 1) The editor, Meifu Wang, will turn attention to her own poetry; 2) we plan to continue to introduce contemporary Chinese poetry, especially poems curated by poets outside Beijing; 3) we plan to re-print the first 15 issues of our journal, and introduce new issues.
Please continue to visit and look through the poems we translated over the years,
or read some of Meifu's poems:
Dirt Road
Water Droplets
Mountain Crag
To Melville
To Father
Dirge
Reading Baudelaire Into the Night
The Sea
Please stay tuned.