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) opened the door for vernacular Chinese to be 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.

21st Century Chinese Poetry aims to carry that tradition further: translating poets from across China for readers who would otherwise never encounter them.

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.

WHERE THINGS STAND NOW

For a decade, this website has been a labour of love of the editor, out of devotion to poetry and poets, to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to English-speaking readers.

Since summer of 2023, Meifu has turned her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to explore the poems translated here over the years. Meifu is also gradually updating the earlier issues of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15) and adding them to poems "from Other Journals". Meifu also continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China or overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to 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

A HUMBLE POEM

• By Zhang Zuogeng


• The inexplicable,
• tiny
• eye of a needle that lets a camel through,
• the camel that looks like a small tumbleweed,
• now entering my eye.
• The earth trembling beneath a wheelchair,
• the glitter of rain falling through the air, unnoticed,
• those sobs that ripple between fingers,
• the tender buds untouched by spring's cold snap...
• The meteor shower
• that glides past and brushes my cheeks,
• the inexplicable,
• tiny
• bristles of wheat that graze against my heart...
• — each one a grain of sand building the pagoda
• that props up my humble, stubborn life.
• These things are infinitesimal,
• smaller than a second,
• but when I hold them all together,
• I feel larger than the universe.
• When I gather up all their lightness,
• I feel the immense essence of life.
• And so I bend,
• like a sheaf of wheat.


• Translated by Meifu Wang, Michael Soper & Johan Ramaekers

• 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.

  
  
  

             

  Zhang Zuogeng 张作梗

  b. 1966
  
  Zhang Zuogeng comes from Hubei Province in Central China. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines across China. In addition, he has published two poetry collections: Poetry Yoga, and Poetry Down to Earth. He lives in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province.
  
  张作梗，湖北京山人，现居扬州。1980年代中后期开始文学创作。主要以诗歌为主，近期兼及随笔、文学评论的写作。作品散见国内各大报刊，出版《诗瑜迦》《诗地道》等诗集。有诗入选多种选本，部分作品被译介海外。获《诗刊》2012年度诗歌奖、首届金迪诗歌奖铜奖。曾参加诗刊社第24届青春诗会。
  
  Zhang Zuogeng's poems can be read here: Yangtze River Boat Trackers , Visiting the Plum Tree on a Snowy Night, A Humble Poem, and 1990, Running Water Came to Our Village.