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 or pathsharer@hotmail.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 recent 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 the 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.

A REPOSE

Since summer of 2023, 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
The Simple Thing Called Love
London Blues
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

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

• by Yan Hen


• Every time the temple summons, they rise.
• The temple's majestic stone steps roll out like a silent tongue.
• Prayers come, with fears written on their faces: Ah, the bedrocks that I seek,
• are they really just fleeting clouds, too flimsy to lean on?
• Prayers come, their hearts damp like a garden overrun by rain,
• overrun by a woeful sky, murmuring their parents’ names.
• Tell us,
• ancestors, we are here to make our offerings, what do you want?
• Please tell us.
• But He who looks down from heaven
• sees only long slender hooks hanging down from the oil lamps...
• Translated by Meifu Wang

Originally written in Chinese; its English translation first appeared on this website and in 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3 , 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》, 第三辑    (Books are currently out of print, but will be reissued with updates in the near future.)

  

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 to writing as authenticity, gentility, 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。