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

BOILING POINT AT DAWN

• by Mang Yuan


• Although water boils every morning,
• its burbling sound has become more pronounced these years,
• first due to my lighter sleep, then because of the flip alarm,
• which pries the mind away from dreams,
• reclaiming the body
• bit by bit, like removing shadow from light,
• like paring virtuality from reality,
• like a sail boat returning from the abyss of time.
• Every dawn is sizzling, and a little hostile.
• Every dawn requires repair and self-discipline.
• Hurry up, it's time to work —
• just then, we get to see the multiple self-images in the bathroom mirrors.
• On a freezing winter day, we wake up like an imperfect kettle,
• comical and tough, uppity and helpless,
• but will eventually begin to puff steam,
• to join the revolution started by James Watt,
• to crank up the heart of dawn,
• so it quivers and roars.
• 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）

  

Mang Yuan 芒原 (舒显富)

b. 1981

Mang Yuan (birth name Shu Xianfu) was born in Zhaotong, Yuannan Province. He has published two poetry books: Willows, and Selected Poems of Shu Xianfu . He works as a policeman.

芒原，原名舒显富，1981年生于云南昭通。现为警察。在《人民文学》《诗探索》《诗刊》等刊物发表作品。参加《诗刊》社第36届青春诗会，获《诗探索》第18届华文青年诗人奖，著有诗集《烟柳记》《舒显富诗选》。