These are unusual times. These poets are tale-tellers of their world.              (All rights reserved. 2026)
  • I am waiting in the land of poetry. waiting in hope for its clanging sounds and forceful roaring past! -Ren Xianqing, Issue 1
  • Now we are on board, let's not bring up any depressing topics; no more debates about the pet peeves in those capitalist countries.

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 and 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

OLD TROUBLE

  • by Zhai Wenxi

  • Old Trouble, he climbed out of the sea.
  • Old Trouble, he shed his lungs and fins.
  • The study of invertebrates is a useful philosophy.
  • Old Trouble, he starves without fruit on the tree.
  • You must come down.
  • Old Trouble, he returns to the cave,
  • watching lions and sunrise through its mouth.
  • Old Trouble, he cuts down a tree;
  • he builds a house.
  • Old Trouble, your children are still starving —
  • you must kill the wolf with your own hands.
  • Old Trouble, may God forgive the war between species.
  • Old Trouble, we go on living for one reason.
  • Let us leave this ground and pursuit of happiness to the newcomers —
  • let us take off and fly into the sky.

  • Translated by Michael Soper & Meifu Wang

    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》,  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.


            

    Zhai Wenxi 翟文熙

    b. 1973

    Zhai Wenxi writes poetry, prose and essays, but has turned his focus more to poetry since the late 1990s. His writings have appeared in various Chinese literary magazines. Zhai Wenxi lives in Guangzhou.

    翟文熙， 广东人，写诗，散文以及书法。自20世纪90年代末以来，他更多地集中在诗歌与书法。 他的作品发表在各种中国文学期刊上。 翟文熙住在广州。

    Read Zhai Wenxi's poems: Antiaris Toxicaria (Poison Arrow Tree), Old Trouble, The Dani Tribe