21st Century Chinese Poetry

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

DIRECTOR OF THE HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION (Excerpt from The Homeowner's Chronicles )

by Yi Xi

To tell you the truth, there is nothing
strategic about me. Yet the homeowners—
not one of them being serious—
elected me to govern our estate,
to manage every single affair under the sun;
they make such excellent material
for teatime gossip among the hive minds.
Night after night—framed by concrete and steel—
I deflect rows and rows of public rants,
handling them the way farmers handle piglets:
feed them corn, yams, bran, and lettuce
until they are fat enough for slaughter—
divide and conquer, or vice versa.
Yet I can feel the pulse of the estate
throbbing beneath my boots. I must act early,
like a hacker probing for the core,
heeding the hum, the crack of a sprouting seed.
Then illumination strikes—
Self-Rule by Consensus. Repair Reserve Funds.
Bond Investments and Certificates for Growth.
The proposal draws a roar of applause
as loud as an autumn swarm of cicadas.
Last night at ten past midnight,
I went to the courtyard of our estate,
searching for answers beneath a tree: Please tell me
about the cell structure of the hive minds.
The tree gave no answer—much like some homeowners,
treating everything as none of their business.
I sit in the courtyard,
a hot-blooded man attempting
to hold off the icy dew,
knowing it is all futile, knowing as ever
justice succumbs to selfishness, knowing
water only runs downhill, knowing
wind and rain arrive by stealth at night, knowing
no man can barehanded turn back a cold front.
The fever for gaudy decor sweeps our compound,
drowning out good taste and good sense.
I hope for sun. But brutal winds
pass through shyly barren boughs,
chilling me to the bone,
touching the gardens far beyond,
awakening obscenity and profanity
in my neighbours' vocabulary—
words long dormant in deep throats.
Still, for the love of springtime,
amidst the slanders and hatred,
I strive to be charitable
to every door and whoever lives behind it.
I want sunlight for our community.
I sit Zen-like in the drizzle,
hoping green vines might sprout from my skin,
reaching every door, every window,
flowering, fruiting, cleansing
and sweetening the air.
But being an HOA director changes nothing:
I am just a lowly worker among city folk,
like a shadow of the street lamp beneath everyone's feet.
After a winter’s gestation, prevarications fly
like buckshot fired at free-spirited birds,
not at all impenetrable. The invisible walls
inside and outside of our housing estate
collapse over my soft heart, grieving with neighbours
over matters that concern me or not.
They no longer pain me, for I have given up my dream of a page
in the Annals of Chinese Property Ownership and Self-Governance.
Oh, wind! You keep blowing,
stealing the twilight from my pen,
carrying off the fruit, and the deep blue of the sea.

Translated by Meifu Wang
This poem was originally written in Chinese. Its English translation first appeared on 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：业主委员会主任（诗人：逸西）

Yi Xi 逸西 (刘逸西)

b. 1963

Yi Xi, a poet and journalist, was born in Fushun, Sichuan Province, in southwest China. He is a member of the Chinese Writers' Association. Formerly a journalist and editor for the legal newspaper Democracy and Legal System, he has published a book-length investigative report on the rescue efforts following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, titled Tender Swordsmen below Jianmen Mountain Pass, as well as several poetry collections, including The Homeowner's Chronicles (2026). Yi Xi speaks of his own poetic pursuit: I strive for a concise, lively, and unadorned poetic voice.

逸西，本名刘逸西，生于四川富顺“一碗水”，中国当代作家、诗人，中国作家协会会员。出版长篇非虚构文学《剑门关下铁人情》《陪伴》等多部，曾获四川省“五个一工程奖”；诗集《业主物语》入选“2025年中国作家协会重点作品扶持项目”（2026年7月由中国书籍出版社出版），作品散见于《诗刊》《星星》《诗选刊》《扬子江》《诗歌月刊》《绿风》等报刊，入选《四川百年新诗选》等多种选本；在《民主与法制》等媒体做过记者、编辑，现居成都。追求简约明快与朴实的诗风。

Read Yi Xi's poems: Director of the Homeowners Association, CCTV, and Anesthesia.