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.

This website is maintained and funded entirely by the editor as a labour of love. 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 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 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 read the poems we translated over the years. Meifu is also in the process of updating the old numbers of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15) and add them to "POEMS 2000-2015" on this website.

You can read some of Meifu's poems here: Go to Meifu's Poems

POEM OF THE DAY     一天一首诗

THE RUMBLE OF THUNDER, PERHAPS WITH A SUBTEXT

• by Nan Qiu


• Not a drop of rain, despite the long rumbling thunder,
• still, it is a premonition that one must heed.
• At least I should pay attention,
• and try to see where it comes from.
• A lot like crying a long cry without tears.
• A lot like a well-rehearsed play without any dialogue.
• A lot like a mansion with open doors but no one comes in or out.
• A lot like a monk in an entrancing ritual without a believer around.
• A lot like an epic novel without a protagonist.
• Perhaps we live in an illusory world
• where only the rumble of thunder is real,
• or, can it be the opposite that
• thunder rumbles high and far but in a different plane from human pathos?
• It is also possible that the non-verbal thunder tries to communicate,
• but we have long turned into numbskulls.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & Michael Soper

This poem was originally written in Chinese and published in Poetry Journal (Beijing, China); its English translation first appeared on this website and simultaneously in China via WeChat (微信).

We encourage you to read this poem as an exercise of slow reading.

  

Nan Qiu 南秋 (连占斗)

b. 1964

Nan Qiu was born in Datian in the southeast coastal province of Fujian. He is a member of The Fujian Writers’ Association, and his poetry has appeared in many poetry magazines in China. He has also published several poetry books, including Language of the Sun (太阳的语言) and The Key to the Field (田野的钥匙). He avocates that poetry should eschew techniques in favor of natural flow, transcending the prescriptions of different schools to expand the breadth of common history.
南秋，本名连占斗，福建省大田县人，福建省作协会员，大田县作协主席， 1990年以“福建三家巷”参加《诗歌报月刊》第二届全国现代诗歌群体大展，著有诗歌集《太阳的语言》《田野的钥匙》《光与影的阶梯》《天地之吻》《大地的心跳》等五部。作品先后在《星星诗刊》《诗选刊》《诗歌月刊》《福建文学》等发表。主张诗歌无技法只求自然，无流派瞻观古今，无厚薄独爱博大之作。

Nan Qiu's poems can be read here: The Rumble of Thunder, Perhaps With a Subtext.