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 :

欢迎来信，编辑邮箱地址如下：

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 2023, Meifu has turned some of her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world, but continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website. 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 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 LAST EAR OF CORN

• by Zhang Fanxiu


• By the time I noticed it, the floret
• atop the corn had turned moldy after the rain,
• speckled thick as cricket droppings.
• I approached it slowly, down the treacherous slope,
• stooping lower with each step.
• Only one ear of corn remained,
• standing alone in the hollow between the mounds,
• so lonely it looked like the world's last shack,
• or the last man standing in a bulwark—
• old and new patches on the shoulders
• of his brown button-front parka,
• over loose trousers bound with leg straps.
• His handmade shoes show only their gaiters,
• laces dangling loose,
• tied around his calves.
• Has soil got into his shoes? I cannot say.
• His white waistband, half a foot wide,
• blazes against my eyes.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & 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, paperback and ebook 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.

  以上译文之原版漢语诗歌, 请读： 仅剩一株玉米 （诗人：张凡修）

  
  

       

  Zhang Fanxiu   张凡修

  b. 1958
  
  Zhang Fanxiu was born in Yutian in Hebei Province and published his first poem when he was seventeen. He stopped writing from the late 1980s to 2005 to work as a farmer to support his family. In 2007, he moved to the northeastern province of Liaoning and has since produced hundreds of poems that reveal his unique insight into nature, agriculture, and rural life. His poems have appeared in major literary journals across the country. In 2010, the Beijing-based magazine Poetry Journal nominated Zhang as one of 'the ten great farmer poets in China.' Zhang has published several poetry collections: Writings from the Moors, The Spirit of the Earth, and Only the Earth.
  
  张凡修，1958年生，河北玉田人，中国作家协会会员。1975年高中毕业后一直在家乡玉田县务农。1976年发表第一首诗歌，1988年至2005年中断写作18年。他说：“诗歌是一张嘴。她要吃，她要喝，而且饭量很大，消化很强；吃了上顿要下顿，喝了这碗想那碗。我用我的十年青春都没把她喂饱。1987年我二儿子降生，家里又添了一张嘴, 让我本已捉襟见肘的日子更加雪上添霜。诗歌要热爱，儿子要热爱，媳妇要热爱。1988年实在无奈，我就把诗歌的脖子扎了起来，先集中精神把家里几张嘴填饱… 一直到2005年末，才又把诗歌这张嘴掰开：肉管够，饭管饱，水管足。一天天养护着伺候着诗歌，看着她变白，变胖，变得高大起来。”（后记，《土为止》）张凡修的诗歌刊发于《河北文学》《诗神》《诗刊》《诗选刊》《星星》等百余家报刊，著有诗集《地气》《丘陵书》《土为止》等三部。2010年，被《诗刊》社、《星星》诗刊社联合评为中国十大农民诗人。自2013年开始，张凡修先生参与《廿一世纪中国诗歌》的选稿工作。
  
  Read Zhang Fanxiu's poems here: Gaze, If at All Possible, The Last Ear of Corn, and Crotchety Wind Gust.