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 :

欢迎来信，编辑邮箱地址如下：

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 2023, Meifu has turned some of her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world, but continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website. 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 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

SPRINGTIME FOR THE OLD TEA TREE

• by Sun Zuhua


• Green buds emerge from the tree's old scars in the rain
• as I open a bag of seeds—
• a delayed arrival, judging by its March postmark.
• A mud-clad bicycle spins its wheel on the hillside,
• making no headway.
• The wind plays with the bicycle bell,
• carrying a blueprint for the new garden.
• Ferns climb up the old tea tree,
• fiddleheads clenched like fists,
• looking tough,
• as if testing a hook punch.
• Deep down, the tree roots push back, sensing
• the gardener's merciless toothed shears
• clipping away deadwood against all resistance.
• How much rain does it take to refresh old scars?
• How loud must the thunder roll to reassure my troop?
• Yet cankered hope clings to memories of happier days,
• even when sunlight penetrating the canopy
• reaches the bottom of the flowerpots only to be buried.
• Then I remember Rilke's words:
• "Who talks of victory?
• To endure is all."
• The tea tree knows to conserve itself for the bloom.
• It's springtime for the old tea tree.
• As the wind rises and dew evaporates,
• I survey my kingdom and count my arsenal:
• one, two, three loud thunderclaps,
• and a blueprint for five chrysanthemums.
• "Patience is everything" when it comes to flowering,
• I tell a child looking over the fence,
• pointing to red blossoms on the old tea tree:
• "Their petals tremble, but not from despair.
• See how the bees chaperone these late buds. "
• Though spring arrives late,
• the right to bloom asserts itself over feeble twilight.
• Water flows freely again, turning the waterwheel,
• feeding the fields with an ocean of love.
• I cannot say exactly how many flowers there are,
• but I do not doubt that deep in the dark soil,
• an unstoppable fire is rushing to the surface.


• Translated by Meifu Wang

• This poem was originally written in Chinese and published in China; its English translation first appeared on this website.

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

  以上英译诗的汉语原作, 请读： 老茶树的春天（诗人：孙祖华）

  
  

    

  Sun Zuhua  孙祖华

  b. 1972
  
  Sun Zuhua, poet and essayist, often writing under the pen name Hua Er, is from Chongqing and lives in Chengdu. His works have been widely published in China, including Poetry Journal (Beijing), XingXing Poetry Journal (Chengdu, Sichuan), Poet's Hut (Chengdu, Sichuan), Readers, Young Writers, People's Daily (Overseas Edition), Sichuan Daily, People's Armed Force News, and China Green News, among others. He has also published several poetry collections, including Hummingbirds and Hua Er's Poems.
  
  孙祖华，作家，诗人，笔名华尔，重庆人，居成都。著有诗集《蜂鸟》《华尔诗集》等。作品散见《诗刊》、《星星》、《草堂》、《读者》、《青年作家》、《人民日报》海外版、《四川日报》、《人民武警报》、《中国绿色时报》等刊媒。
  
  Sun Zuhua's poem can be read here: The Spring of the Old Tea Tree, Rickshaw, The Peach, and Bird Nest/em>.