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

THE NIGHT OF NIHILISM

• by Yan Hen


• Every time the temple summons, the worshippers rise.
• The temple's grand stone steps roll out like a silent tongue.
• Prayers come, with fears written on their faces: Ah, the bedrocks I seek,
• is it only a fleeting cloud, too flimsy to lean on?
• They come with hearts damp like a garden overrun by rain,
• under a woeful sky, murmuring their parents' names.
• Tell us, ancestors,
• we have come to make our offerings —
• what is it you want? Please, tell us.
• But the one who looks down from heaven
• sees only long, slender hooks hanging down from the oil lamps...


• Translated by Meifu Wang

  This poem was originally written in Chinese. Its English translation first appeared on this website and in an issue of 21st Century Chinese Poetry 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》,  in both ebook and paperback editions. (The books are currently out of print, but their contents are gradually being added to this website.)

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

  
  
  

    

  Yan Hen 胭痕 (嵇萍, 呆呆)

  b. 1970s
  
  Yan Hen was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines across China. She professes her preferred approach of writing to be "authentic, gentle, and non-utilitarian." Yan Hen lives in Jiangsu Province.
  
  胭痕。女，湖州人。写诗，作品散见于《诗刊》、《诗选刊》、《绿风》、《中国诗人》等杂志。有诗歌入选年度诗歌选。坚持个人的，温和而无效的写作方式。
  
  Yan Hen's poems can be read here: The Night of Nihilism.