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

From 2019 to 2022, our editor and translator team worked in partnership with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊) to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to our 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.





YET ANOTHER SEASON OF POETRY

Since summer of 2022, 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 Crags
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

DAISIES AND TANGERINES

• by Xiong Fang


• The most ostentatious things of the season
• are wild daisies on the hill and red tangerines on the branchlets.
• Daisies and tangerines, flowers and fruit face off
• in simultaneous bloom — one pours its heart out,
• the other wraps a softness inside and waits for its turn
• to explode. The mirthless gray winter, still young,
• is taunted to go rogue by yellow daisies and orange tangerines.
• I am the least noticeable amidst these warm color tones.
• This season has its mix of doldrums and witchery,
• we also have our winter blues and furors.


• 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）

  

Xiong Fang 熊芳

b. 1987

Xiong Fang was born in Taoyuan, Hunan Province. She is the literary editor of Changde Newspaper in Hunan province. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines across China.

熊芳，87年生，湖南桃源人，曾参加《人民文学》第五届“新浪潮”诗会，组诗见于《人民文学》《诗刊》《星星》《扬子江诗刊》《汉诗》等，入选多个年选版本。曾获“人民文学 紫金之星”奖、台湾叶红女性诗歌奖、常德原创文艺奖诗歌奖等。现为常德日报社副刊编辑。