THE JOURNAL OF 21st Century Chinese Poetry 《廿一世纪漢語诗歌》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 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 and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website.

In summer 2026, Meifu decided to change the Chinese title of the journal from 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》 to《廿一世纪漢語诗歌》, to emphasize the essence of the collection: poetry written in Chinese language rather than the poets' geographic origins.

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

POEM OF THE DAY     一天一首诗

OCEAN'S NEIGHBOUR

• by Bei Ye


• I have never measured the distance
• between the ocean and my doorstep
• with a rope, a yardstick, or a metal tape.
• But I gauge it by heart: this place I call home
• sits three hundred meters from the waves, where gulls
• squall and startle me awake at night.
• Now and then I stroll down to inspect it.
• The white surf flags me down from the distance,
• but I am unruffled.
• Ah, the sea—that aqueous desert, man-eating water!
• No one who ever died of thirst at sea
• ever received an apology.
• Oh, the sea, that drunken, awe-inspiring god!
• He crouches beneath the dark seamount at my back,
• snorting a dizzying spell.
• I do not harvest the sea,
• so our relationship remains uncomplicated.
• Let others flatter or curse it as they please.
• Local fishermen claim
• the sea seldom scales the cliff to pay a house return visit,
• though it delights in sending pillaging winds to give women migraines.
• Yet in secret, I wish it would charge the cliff just once—
• unleashing thunder and lightning, driving omens of ruin
• like sandstorms across a desert.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & Guy Hibbert

• 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).

  以上译文之原版漢语诗歌: 大海的邻居（作者：北野 ）.

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

  
  

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  Bei Ye 北野 (马长岭)

  b. 1965
  
  Bei Ye, an ethnic Manchurian poet and essayist, was born in Mulan Weichang, Hebei Province, and currently lives in Chengde. His work has appeared in literary magazines across China. He has published two collections of poetry—Ordinary Happiness, and Selected Poems of Bei Ye—as well as a collection of essays titled The Sound of Falling Snow.
  
  北野，原名马长岭， 1965年生于河北木兰围场，满族，上世纪八十年代起在《诗刊》《青年文学》《诗歌报》《诗选刊》《星星》《绿风》《散文》等发表诗歌、散文、评论等。有诗集《普通的幸福》《北野自选集1-3》散文集《落雪的声音》等著作和自印本。获各级奖励多次，作品被译成蒙、维、藏、朝鲜、英、法等文字。现居承德。
  
  Read Bei Ye's poems: Prince, and Ocean’s Neighbour.