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 GHOST WHARF

• by Chen Min


• They say it was cheery and gay, and flowers everywhere,
• and the locals loved their wine and vodka more than life.
• Dockhands made their homes between the waves and the mountains,
• wine jugs under their heads, women in their arms,
• and words sweeter than honey.
• The bluestone riverbank had well-worn dips, evenly spaced out
• – the so-called foot-catchers – unlike any other road.
• The boat trackers showed up at night with their towlines.
• The skipper had a pole and a tiller as good as a third arm.
• As to the tied-up barges, they made the wharf.
• Every barge was a girl's wedding bed; it loved to rock.
• No need to ask anyone for their surname,
• each clan came with a distinct water smell.
• All children and grandchildren grew up in the same house,
• looking just like their elders.
• One day the wharf was too drunk to notice
• that the river had gone elsewhere, never to return.
• Banana trees then climbed over the boats' roofs;
• House swallows no longer recognized their homes;
• they called, but never to return.
• The row of foot-catchers on the bluestone
• has been blessed with green shade by time's slow hand.


• Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  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.

  
  
  

    

  Chen Min 陈敏

  b. 1956
  
  Chen Min (poet and essayist) graduated from Northwest University in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province with a major in Chinese Language and Literature. He is the editor of The Journey , a literary magazine based in Ankang, Shaanxi Province. He has published several collections of poetry and essays, including Blue Stars , Golden Moon, The Sky Over Here, and On the Journey .
  
  陈敏，陕西省白河县人，现居安康；西北大学中文系文学学士；先后任安康日报政教文艺科科长、副刊部主任，中国报纸副刊研究会理事，陕西省新闻高级职称评委，安康日报编委、高级编辑；中国作协会员；诗歌发表于飞天、草原、延河、诗神、星星、旅途、绿风、诗刊、文汇报、西安晚报、农民日报、工人日报、中青报、人民日报及台湾《秋水》、美国《二十一世纪的中国诗歌》等各类文学作品；已由出版社出版诗集、散文集《蓝星星》《金月亮》《这方天空》等5部，并出版主编的《安康作家优秀作品选》《人在旅途》7部。
  
  Read Chen Min's poems: Blushing Red, The Ghost Wharf.