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

MY INEPT LOVE FOR THIS WORLD

• by Wang Jibing


• The used sofa our neighbour gave us
• made my wife very happy.
• She talked excitedly about finding
• a proper coffee table to go with it,
• all the while wedging in a book, and then another,
• to prop up the corner where a leg had gone missing.
• I went to the bathroom and washed my face in cold water
• before coming out with a fresh smile.
• All these years
• I have been sweating in the sun,
• labouring to squeeze juice out of this life,
• but I still cannot turn life into a jewel.
• In my own clumsy way I have loved this world,
• and love back those who love me.
• It has been almost thirty years, and still I am unprepared
• to let tears flow in front of my wife.
• All I can do is be the pendulum of a clock
• — love and love back, a tick to a tock —
• a harmonic oscillator, ticktock, ticktock.


• Translated by Meifu Wang, Michael Soper & 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).

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

  
  
  

       

  Wang Jibing 王计兵

  b. 1969
  
  Wang Jibing was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province in eastern China. He works as a take-out food deliverer, and writes poems whenever he can. He is a member of Xuzhou City Writers' Association. His poetry collection Low Flight was awarded the 2026 Lu Xun Literary Prize.
  
  王计兵，1969年出生于江苏徐州，他既是一名外卖员，也是徐州作家协会成员。王计兵荣获2026年鲁迅文学奖。
  
  Wang Jibing's poems can be read here: My Inept Love for This World, and Overdrive.